I have a problem with "Buyer Request"

[arafat_hossain4]

Depending on how you write your offer.

[marinapomorac]

Hi @visualstudios, I don’t know how long you’ve been here on Fiverr and how you started etc…, but I see you’re Fiverr Pro and I understand very well why the buyer request section seems worthless to you. If I were you, I would have the same opinion.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege to be there where you are and so, yes, sometimes it requires someone more time and effort than what he/she actually earns from the order, but the beginnings are always the hardest. I have no idea how you started and what you did to get there, but I am sure that, since you are a Pro, it shouldn’t have been easy. So I think you should also consider other people’s opinions and situations before bringing them down saying that sending offers to buyer requests is useless. Or at least, give us suggestions and tips on how to be successful like you 😊

I am talking as a new seller and I have just shared what helped me get few orders. That is not the only source of orders, of course. But if I have to do extra efforts, I am willing to do that. Not everyone has it easy, but just because something’s hard it doesn’t mean it’s not worth it 🙂

Also, there are many sellers here on Fiverr who started by sending offers to buyer requests and they have now reached a point where they no longer have to. So, no, I don’t think it’s not worth a try.

But thanks for taking your precious time to calculate my conversion rate and responding to me!

I don’t know how long you’ve been here on Fiverr

I have been seller on Fiverr from april 2020. I sent 467 offers and only one turned in to normal order and client. The rest was just pure waste of time. I got total 2 orders from BR. After gaining Level 1 I looked at BR and send 10 more offers total in 2 months. Now I am level 2 and I never go to BR to send offer. I only look is there something interesting I can turn in to funny video (“FIVERR Buyer’s request of the day” series).

BR is problematic because you must send offer and nothing is really known or clear from the description they provided. You need to be extremely lucky to guess the correct price for what he is going to ask you to do. I have no orders now but still BR is not for me.

I will wait for client to select me.

[mjaninea]

Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege to be there where you are and so, yes, sometimes it requires someone more time and effort than what he/she actually earns from the order, but the beginnings are always the hardest.

Agreed. When I started I did a lot of work well under market rates, since I didn’t have the social proof to back my prices. The beginning is always hardest. I had the same opinion on buyer requests before I was Pro or TRS, btw. You just need to browse it for a bit and see the ridiculous requests with hundreds of people applying to arrive at that conclusion.

Or at least, give us suggestions and tips on how to be successful like you

I’ve been doing that for a while, you can check my post history. Focus on having great gigs, study the market, stand apart from the competition. Focus on portfolio, communication, presentation and your gigs instead of on buyer requests. There are no secret tips or tricks. Offer something more appealing than the competition, that’s all there is. What does that mean in practice? It means half the sellers will never get anywhere because they don’t have the skills, and they may as well go do something else. The platform is overcrowded with meksells. People don’t like to hear the truth, so they ignore it.

Can BR’s be good to get your first review? Sure. But once that’s done, it’s not really a productive use of your time. Buyers on BR’s are generally worse, more demanding, will leave worse reviews, etc. It’s a gamble even if you do get the deal, it’s not a good strategy. Not to mention the totally overcrowded market, every meksell is replying to buyer requests, and it just makes them that much worse. I see a ton of ridiculous buyer requests, like asking for 10 hours of highly skilled work for $5, and they have 10, 20, 30 people applying. It’s absurd. If people stopped doing that, buyer requests would improve substantially. The scammy buyers would eventually learn their lesson and stop posting crap there if they got no replies, thereby improving buyer requests as a whole. Then they may be worth it.

But no, the mantra seems to be “send 10 buyer request every day”. There aren’t even 10 buyer requests worth applying to per day. It’s insane. And yet half the posts on the forum seem to be about Buyer Requests, when that’s a niche feature that’s buried in a menu, that’s not how Fiverr is supposed to work.

The whole idea behind Fiverr is having clients contact you, not the other way around. If you want to apply to jobs, go to subreddits for online work (and pay 0% commission), or to other platforms with lower fees that are designed for that type of work. Fiverr is not designed for that.

The idea behind a buyer request is to ask for things you can’t find on gigs, not to just avoid looking for a seller. That’s not what’s happening. I say buyer requests are a bad idea for the same reason I say “sharing your gig on social media” is a bad idea - 99% of the people that do it, do it wrong. It screws up the market. So stop giving that advice to people over and over.

But thanks for taking your precious time to calculate my conversion rate and responding to me!

And I thank you for the snarky condescension.

I see a ton of ridiculous buyer requests, like asking for 10 hours of highly skilled work for $5, and they have 10, 20, 30 people applying. It’s absurd. If people stopped doing that, buyer requests would improve substantially. The scammy buyers would eventually learn their lesson and stop posting crap there if they got no replies, thereby improving buyer requests as a whole. Then they may be worth it.

I totally agree with you with what you’re stating here, because I even made a topic concerning this. That sellers should stop sending offers for requests that require a LOT of work for a budget of 5-10$.

But no, the mantra seems to be “send 10 buyer request every day”. There aren’t even 10 buyer requests worth applying to per day. It’s insane.

I guess you’re thinking I’m someone who responds to every request not bothering about the budget or the request made, but this is not true. I usually don’t even consume my 10 offers a day. I only send them when I am 100% sure I can provide what the buyer is asking for and it it’s for a reasonable budget/price.

The whole idea behind Fiverr is having clients contact you , not the other way around. If you want to apply to jobs, go to subreddits for online work (and pay 0% commission), or to other platforms with lower fees that are designed for that type of work. Fiverr is not designed for that.

The idea behind a buyer request is to ask for things you can’t find on gigs, not to just avoid looking for a seller. That’s not what’s happening.

I understand that Fiverr works in a completely different way, that it is not a platform based on buyer requests. I do agree on that. 70-80% of the orders I got them from buyers who found my gig and messaged me or directly placed an order. But the buyer requests helps me on those days I don’t get any orders or messages. For me, it’s the 10cents necessary to get to the 100$, if you get what I mean.

I say buyer requests are a bad idea for the same reason I say “sharing your gig on social media” is a bad idea - 99% of the people that do it, do it wrong.

I agree with you on this as well, I have never promoted or shared my gig on social media and have no plan to do that, because I don’t think it would really help me.

So stop giving that advice to people over and over.

I don’t think it’s nice of you to tell us to stop giving advice to people. Different things work for different people. Buyer Requests may have not worked for you or maybe is just a waste of time for you and for other sellers, but it might be very helpful for others, specially those are just starting and have their gig ranked at the last page. All I’m saying is they should give it a try, only then they will understand if that could work for them or not.

And I thank you for the snarky condescension.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there was no snarky condescension in what I said. I was actually thankful you took your time to calculate my conversion rate, I’ve never had a clear idea of that and now I have it. So, thanks! 🙂

[visualstudios]

I see a ton of ridiculous buyer requests, like asking for 10 hours of highly skilled work for $5, and they have 10, 20, 30 people applying. It’s absurd. If people stopped doing that, buyer requests would improve substantially. The scammy buyers would eventually learn their lesson and stop posting crap there if they got no replies, thereby improving buyer requests as a whole. Then they may be worth it.

I totally agree with you with what you’re stating here, because I even made a topic concerning this. That sellers should stop sending offers for requests that require a LOT of work for a budget of 5-10$.

But no, the mantra seems to be “send 10 buyer request every day”. There aren’t even 10 buyer requests worth applying to per day. It’s insane.

I guess you’re thinking I’m someone who responds to every request not bothering about the budget or the request made, but this is not true. I usually don’t even consume my 10 offers a day. I only send them when I am 100% sure I can provide what the buyer is asking for and it it’s for a reasonable budget/price.

The whole idea behind Fiverr is having clients contact you , not the other way around. If you want to apply to jobs, go to subreddits for online work (and pay 0% commission), or to other platforms with lower fees that are designed for that type of work. Fiverr is not designed for that.

The idea behind a buyer request is to ask for things you can’t find on gigs, not to just avoid looking for a seller. That’s not what’s happening.

I understand that Fiverr works in a completely different way, that it is not a platform based on buyer requests. I do agree on that. 70-80% of the orders I got them from buyers who found my gig and messaged me or directly placed an order. But the buyer requests helps me on those days I don’t get any orders or messages. For me, it’s the 10cents necessary to get to the 100$, if you get what I mean.

I say buyer requests are a bad idea for the same reason I say “sharing your gig on social media” is a bad idea - 99% of the people that do it, do it wrong.

I agree with you on this as well, I have never promoted or shared my gig on social media and have no plan to do that, because I don’t think it would really help me.

So stop giving that advice to people over and over.

I don’t think it’s nice of you to tell us to stop giving advice to people. Different things work for different people. Buyer Requests may have not worked for you or maybe is just a waste of time for you and for other sellers, but it might be very helpful for others, specially those are just starting and have their gig ranked at the last page. All I’m saying is they should give it a try, only then they will understand if that could work for them or not.

And I thank you for the snarky condescension.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there was no snarky condescension in what I said. I was actually thankful you took your time to calculate my conversion rate, I’ve never had a clear idea of that and now I have it. So, thanks! 🙂

I don’t think it’s nice of you to tell us to stop giving advice to people.

I was referring to bad advice like send 10 buyer requests every day, sharing gig on social media, stay online 24/7, etc. Not advice in general, and not to you specifically. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.