Seven Rules for Fiverr Newbies

[thatwordchick]

1.) Don’t Steal Gig Text, Bio Text, Images, or Content. Everything that you put on your profile should come directly out of your own mind. If you are cutting and pasting any text in from any sources that are not created by you that is called theft. You are not allowed to just take someone else’s gig text and use it, and when you are caught doing it (and you will be - sellers DO check), your account will be banned from Fiverr and you could get a DMCA takedown notice from your ISP or host depending on where you use it. You would not shoplift from another store to stock your own store’s shelves, so DON’T DO IT HERE!

2.) Do Not Make Duplicate Accounts. You get one account on Fiverr. One. That doesn’t mean “Oh this account got a negative rating so I’m going to delete and start over.” It means one account period, forever. Unless you get special permission from Customer Service, you aren’t allowed to just create a new profile because you feel like it, even if you delete your “old” one. Your IP address and identity is tracked here, and you will be caught doing it eventually and get - you guessed it - banned from Fiverr.

3.) Do Not Give Free Work, Samples, Etc. - USE The Fiverr System! Bear in mind that as a new seller, some bad buyers may see you as someone they can scam. They may try to convince you to turn in your work through messages or chats (rather than through a legitimate order), or ask for a “sample” before you do work for them - don’t do it. Fiverr has a system for a reason, you’re paying 20% in fees for it, so use it! Do not start work on any project until you get an email in your inbox with this subject line:

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4.) The Successful Sellers Here Embrace Research. Fiverr is not “quick money” no matter what the course, guide, site, or blog that brought you here may have told you. You wouldn’t pick up a paintbrush and instantly know how to create masterpieces, or pick up a new instrument and immediately start playing flawlessly. No matter what skills you have to sell on Fiverr, be aware that Fiverr ITSELF is a skill. That means you may be the world’s greatest writer / graphic designer / voiceover artist / data entry person / etc. but you are Level 0 right now as far as your skill at using the Fiverr platform is concerned. Being good at something creative or technical does not automatically mean you’re also a whiz at marketing. Take it slow, stay humble, and read, listen, and respectfully ask your way through these first challenging days and weeks. You’ll get there, don’t worry - there’s a little learning curve to clear first, that’s all.

5.) Learn The TOS. Don’t Break It. Full disclosure here - when I first arrived on Fiverr I started my “career” rewriting sellers’ gig descriptions for them. I was very good at it and made a good bit of money…for awhile. I didn’t realize that what I was doing was against the TOS! My gig got taken down and I had to scramble to pick up the pieces and take another direction - thankfully, I did and it worked. Learn from my mistakes - figure out what you’re allowed to do first, rather than pushing forward and apologizing/regretting later. Don’t list or work on anything having to do with academics (e.g. writing papers/essays for students), guaranteeing “likes/shares/comments” on anyone’s social media profile, offering any adult work, etc. While you may get away with it for a little while, like I did, Fiverr will catch up to you eventually and you’ll have to start from scratch with something new.

6.) Be Professional - Do Not Send Unwanted Contacts. If you are talking with your client in the message system, you can’t ask / suggest / insinuate that they should leave you a review. Fiverr has bots that “listen” to your message conversations and they will flag your account if you’re suspected of asking for a review. Once a review is left, on both buyer and seller sides, it cannot be changed by anyone except CS and they only do so rarely, so don’t count on it. A good rule of thumb on Fiverr is do not speak unless spoken to. If you have a question, ask on the forums here, and under no circumstance contact another seller through the main Fiverr site asking if they can hire you to farm out work, or ask them for sales advice. FORUMS are for friendly advice, FIVERR is for financial competition. Don’t confuse the two.

7.) Understand the payment system. When you “submit” a finished project, a buyer has 3 days (72 hours) to approve it, request a revision, or request a cancellation. Imagine you turn in your project at 8:00 am on Monday, May 1st. Now imagine the client doesn’t request a revision or cancellation, but also doesn’t manually accept the order, so it auto-approves 72 hours later - at 8:00 am on May 4th. Once that happens, exactly 14 days later, at 8:00 am on May 18th, your payment will show up in your Fiverr account, minus Fiverr’s 20% fee. If you charged $100 for your project, for example, you will earn $80.

[benedictrm]

Amen

After what had happened in the last few hours, this is very welcome. I wish this could be pinned to the top pf the Forum and referred to every time needed (which I would like to think was a lot less if it were pinned and read).

🙂

[theratypist]

On 2/23/2021 at 12:54 AM, benedictrm said:

After what had happened in the last few hours

hahahaha I didn’t see it anymore!

[benedictrm]

On 2/23/2021 at 1:07 AM, theratypist said:

hahahaha I didn’t see it anymore!

No, sadly I think Fiverr pulled the whole thread, probably under some silly one-sided rule about protecting his integrity as a seller or some such. I think he did such a great job of showing his integrity 😮

Maybe my fault as I reported him to Fiverr as “suspect” (all those stolen images, lies, and personal rudeness) as it would not entirely surprise me if after that scary display, he tried something else. Of course, now, the history is invisible. :man_shrugging:

🙂

[uk1000]

On 2/23/2021 at 7:10 AM, thatwordchick said:

Fiverr has bots that “listen” to your message conversations and they will flag your account if you’re suspected of asking for a review.

I’m not sure they have bots just looking for someone asking for a review though. Or if they have it doesn’t seem very sophisticated (eg. it doesn’t seem to do anything for “remember to rate/review the…” in the inbox). Though if you type a particular rating (eg. “5 stars” or “5 star”) in the inbox you’ll get a message on screen saying that asking for a particular rating is against the TOS and the message would probably get flagged if you sent it.

Though I wouldn’t recommend asking for a review since if Fiverr does see it the seller could get a warning (eg. if they think someone is being pressured to leave one). 

[psykkopatte]

Don’t listen to bad advices from people who have 0 sale and 0 experience like: stay online 24/7, send 10 BR per days, share your gig on facebook

[imagination7413]

And another great thread for my favorite bookmarks collection! I should really take some time to organize them better.

(Sounds like I missed quite a kerfuffle.)

[alphagev]

I wish I could put ten million “likes” to this post. Thank you for writing it! 

[kendal1747]

I would like to add that everyone should use the Watermark that Fiverr provides.

[enelikha]

This is great! I just started and luckily stumbled upon this. Very informative and will prove useful on my fiverr journey 🙂 Thanks @thatwordchick

[sachiya88]

On 2/23/2021 at 10:17 AM, thatwordchick said:

payment will show up in your Fiverr account, minus Fiverr’s 20% fee. If you charged $100 for your project, for example, you will earn $80.

Hello Dear, This information is very helpful for a new seller. I have appreciated it if you can write a post about fiver credits & referral links, Thanks😇

[osmigo]

I'm wondering just how strictly Fiverr enforces these policies.  For example, I see MANY sellers with multiple accounts, using the same "business card" picture with slightly different wording. As far as academic stuff, again, I see MANY sellers openly advertising writing services for academic papers and college admissions essays, etc.  I often see all of these among those high-dollar "pro" sellers as well, people with over 1,000 reviews and long queues.  Just makes me wonder how seriously I should take it.

[uk1000]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:18 PM, osmigo said:

I often see all of these among those high-dollar "pro" sellers as well, people with over 1,000 reviews and long queues.  Just makes me wonder how seriously I should take it.

I'd take it very seriously re: academic work/stuff Fiverr will think is that. Though writing academic work is probably a lot more serious than proofreading it. Someone on the forum said proofreading academic work was said to be okay by CS but I still think it's risky. To be more sure about the rules you could contact CS and ask them. They are probably less likely to remove a Pro gig than a normal gig/they may allow a bit more with a Pro gig. There is a Pro gig that allows editing academic thesis (which I think is risky rules-wise) though that says they will not actually write it etc.

So to be safe I'd avoid essays/thesis/assignments unless you want to check with CS to be sure of the rules/whether it's okay to just proofread things like that. Ideally Fiverr should clarify in the policy if proofreading those are allowed. They currently say:

Quote

"Taking part in doing someone else’s academic work (which will likely be submitted as the student’s own work) or requesting academic work to be done for you... [isn't allowed]"

and without clarifying further in the rules/TOS that makes it sound like proofreading academic work is also not allowed.

[sanjoy_19]

If a buyer wants to see a sample by me, how can I show it to him? Tell the details in your number three point