Best practice when sick?

[nateb99]

Hi folks. What is the best practice when feeling sick?

Pause the gigs?
Does Out of Office affect things to the same extent?

Thanks

Nate

[krheate]

Increase delivery time. Pausing gigs makes them disappear from the ranking and there’s no warranty that they will come back in the same position

Doing anything to your gigs (like editing them) will temporarily move them around in the search results. However, it’s definitely better than going OOO.

FYI, as I stated above, I got this info from reading in the Forum- specifically from this post: Went from Top Seller Evaluation to ZERO - #17 by eoinfinnegan

[eoinfinnegan]

Was just about to comment here but yeah - OOO seems to do something that isn’t good for ranking. I paused my gigs and was away for almost 9 months but when I came back and unpaused them, my gigs have been ranking as well as before. No guarantees this isn’t a fluke or some other reason but I remember that when I used OOO for even a couple of days, it definitely affected rankings for some time.

[looseink]

I was seriously ill off-and-on this past year.

I went Out of Office frequently.

It didn’t seem to have a negative impact and allowed me to get well without the added stress of trying to explain to Buyers that I wasn’t really at the point where I could provide top quality service.

[english_voice]

I’ve written about this before, so apologies to the regulars - but it might be useful to hear.

Whenever I’ve used Out of Office mode (usually a couple of times a year), I’ve found it can take two or three weeks each time for my account to start to recover in terms of volume of orders and messages. But recover it does. However, the peace of mind that comes with OoO is that it is like shutting the front door behind you. People can’t hassle you and expect replies.

I have also paused gigs in the past, and in my opinion the effect of pausing gigs is a little more unpredictable. I’ve had gigs spring back into life the moment I’ve un-paused them and I’ve also had once successful gigs (100+ orders) never do anything again. However, pausing gigs won’t stop existing and previous clients from messaging you.

A half way house would be to extend your delivery times, this way your gigs stay in the search but buyers will hopefully be put off ordering because you’re stating 20 days for a one hour service for example. However, you will still need to service your account by responding to messages etc. In other words it doesn’t allow you to switch off from Fiverr.

I wish you a speedy recovery. If you’re likely to be out of action for a few days, then consider extending delivery times - if you’re likely to be out of action for a couple of weeks or more then I personally would opt to use OoO mode.

[melanielm]

I recently used OOO for almost two months due to a health issue. I almost didn’t get back in time to keep my 60-day ranking high enough. Yikes! The gig ranking did disappear, but didn’t take too long to come back. It took about one week this time for orders to start rolling in again.

Best wishes to you!

[enunciator]

Trying to do VO while sick or with a shot voice will obviously show in a recording and doesn’t do anyone (particularly you) any good.

Pausing your gigs is debatable as the safest choice, but extending delivery times is the long-term solution if ever you are briefly under the weather.

[priyank_mod]

If it's an ongoing order - Just have an honest conversation with them and inform them about how many days (tentatively) you would need before resuming work. Most people would understand the situation but sometimes buyers might have unavoidable deadlines - in that case either work through the sickness to deliver or request them to cancel the order and hire someone else for the job. 

We are all human after all. We work to earn a living (not the other way around). 

[parasmaknojia]

Don’t pasue the gig but atleast give your best for 1or 2 hrs for your gig☺️

[nateb99]

Don’t pasue the gig but atleast give your best for 1or 2 hrs for your gig☺️

Thanks, but I’m not well enough to do the gigs at the moment.

[krheate]

Based on what I’ve read in the Forum, Out of Office can harm your ranking and kinda drag you down for a little.

I would suggest pausing your gigs or extending the delivery time! Hope you feel better soon :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

[nateb99]

Based on what I’ve read in the Forum, Out of Office can harm your ranking and kinda drag you down for a little.

I would suggest pausing your gigs or extending the delivery time! Hope you feel better soon :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Thanks @krheate. I’ll pause them 😀

[naikoosuhaib]

If you think you can’t totally work I guess it is better to take a break (Health first)

Rest if you think you can work just change your delivery time e.g if you used to do some work in 1-2 days make it 4-5 this will keep gigs live. If you go out of office or pause gigs then they totaly disappear

So your take on if you can manage just increase delivery time.

[moonstaredits]

Thanks, but I’m not well enough to do the gigs at the moment.

Increase delivery time. Pausing gigs makes them disappear from the ranking and there’s no warranty that they will come back in the same position

[nateb99]

Thanks for the advice/wishes everyone 😁

[successglobal]

If you are dealing with a return buyer all you have to do is explain your health condition at the moment to the buyer in other to buy more time recover and get the project done once your are okay back

[kayes_abdullah]

You definitely should have a fruitful conversation with the buyer. He/She will understand your situation. 

[glow_writer]

Just have a discussion with the person. Majority of the time, they will understand and will allow you to extend the delivery time. We are all human beings.

[kevindwren]

When I have an emergency or condition that require me to extend my delivery time, I always start the message with an apology and then proceed to let them know about the extension request. Most of the time, they understand and wouldn't mind giving the extra time.

[kawsar_log]

You should inform your buyers if they are Kind enough or no issues with them then you can always extend the time!