I made my first $100.000 on Fiverr and you can do it too! - Tips from a Top Rated Seller

[raghnalltuathai]

Hey guys,
this is quite a bait thread title now, I know. But it’s true though! I’ve been active on Fiverr since 2017, full-time since 2019-2020. Top Rated Seller for over a year if I remember correctly. I don’t want to brag about these $100,000 in income, but rather motivate you. Because when I started, I was still a student, had no idea about online business or Fiverr and had to take away deposit bottles at the end of the month because I didn’t have enough money to buy them.

An investment of $80 (the software I work with) and Fiverr have now resulted almost three years later in me working full-time from home, not having an annoying boss and yes, I do enjoy that freedom!

I’m active on the forum a lot, I’ve had some great conversations here, got super tips, met interesting sellers and would like to give something back today (even if it’s just a little something). So here are a few tips that will hopefully help you as a newbie, but maybe also as a veteran.

1. Know your value! I see so many freelancers selling themselves short! Stand by your skills and your prices. Of course, your rates should be realistic compared to your work time, but never let a buyer tell you what your time, talent and work is worth! The client’s budget has to adapt to your prices and not vice versa. You don’t go to the apple store and ask for a 70% discount on an iPhone because your budget doesn’t allow for more, do you?

2. Stand out from the crowd! I notice this especially when I search for a service as a buyer on Fiverr. In some sections the portfolios, prices and gig descriptions are similar as if they were clones. As a customer, you tend to buy on the off chance then. If you notice that your competition is big, then think about a unique selling proposition and marketing. Make a particularly appealing gig video, a humorous description or fancy samples! Think about your favorite products - they have competition too! So why did you choose your favorite product? Work on your online presence!

3. Prepare yourself for madness. This came to mind when a friend of mine also started his own business online and gave up shortly after because he couldn’t handle the attitude of some buyers. There are great customers! I love working with my regular customers, they are awesome! But a couple of times a week I get requests from people who brazenly want to negotiate your prices, insult you, threaten you (with a bad review for example), want to scam you, badmouth your work, don’t say hello or goodbye, don’t reply, waste your time or cancel your project. Grow a thick skin and be prepared. Don’t take it personally and focus on building long-term relationships with great clients.

4. Experiment with pricing. You don’t have to offer the same prices for years. Don’t be afraid to adjust your prices to your work time, education and professionalism. I too have shied away from this for a long time, thinking that the algorithm or the customers will then say goodbye. Exactly the opposite was the case and I then had the strongest selling months!

5. Turn down an order if you notice red flags or if you can’t provide what the buyer is looking for. Otherwise this only makes for unhappy customers, cancelled orders and wasted time. There’s no shame in turning down a project if you realize the scope is too large or the client wants something that’s outside your scope of work. I turn down projects several times a week.

6. Pay attention to your English. And I say that as a non-native English speaker! Fiverr is an international platform, which means English is a must. As a seller you need to be able to have a professional briefing to understand the project. If you don’t understand the client or you talk past each other, it will only lead to problems. If necessary, use free online translators or a language tools to correct mistakes. There is no shame in it, it rather shows that you are trying to do your best in communication.

7. Do not copy anyone and be unique! Every week other sellers are copying my description, even reproducing my work, stealing my portfolio to pass it off as theirs and matching their prices to mine. All in the hope that they will be successful. But who do you want to work with as a client? With the original or the copy?

I just realize this is already a pretty long thread. I’d like to update it every now and then when I think of something new that I think is important. I’m also happy about your comments of course!

Thanks so much for reading! I wish you all the best!

Best regards
Rag

[imagination7413]

Hey guys,

this is quite a bait thread title now, I know. But it’s true though! I’ve been active on Fiverr since 2017, full-time since 2019-2020. Top Rated Seller for over a year if I remember correctly. I don’t want to brag about these $100,000 in income, but rather motivate you. Because when I started, I was still a student, had no idea about online business or Fiverr and had to take away deposit bottles at the end of the month because I didn’t have enough money to buy them.

An investment of $80 (the software I work with) and Fiverr have now resulted almost three years later in me working full-time from home, not having an annoying boss and yes, I do enjoy that freedom!

I’m active on the forum a lot, I’ve had some great conversations here, got super tips, met interesting sellers and would like to give something back today (even if it’s just a little something). So here are a few tips that will hopefully help you as a newbie, but maybe also as a veteran.

1. Know your value! I see so many freelancers selling themselves short! Stand by your skills and your prices. Of course, your rates should be realistic compared to your work time, but never let a buyer tell you what your time, talent and work is worth! The client’s budget has to adapt to your prices and not vice versa. You don’t go to the apple store and ask for a 70% discount on an iPhone because your budget doesn’t allow for more, do you?

2. Stand out from the crowd! I notice this especially when I search for a service as a buyer on Fiverr. In some sections the portfolios, prices and gig descriptions are similar as if they were clones. As a customer, you tend to buy on the off chance then. If you notice that your competition is big, then think about a unique selling proposition and marketing. Make a particularly appealing gig video, a humorous description or fancy samples! Think about your favorite products - they have competition too! So why did you choose your favorite product? Work on your online presence!

3. Prepare yourself for madness. This came to mind when a friend of mine also started his own business online and gave up shortly after because he couldn’t handle the attitude of some buyers. There are great customers! I love working with my regular customers, they are awesome! But a couple of times a week I get requests from people who brazenly want to negotiate your prices, insult you, threaten you (with a bad review for example), want to scam you, badmouth your work, don’t say hello or goodbye, don’t reply, waste your time or cancel your project. Grow a thick skin and be prepared. Don’t take it personally and focus on building long-term relationships with great clients.

4. Experiment with pricing. You don’t have to offer the same prices for years. Don’t be afraid to adjust your prices to your work time, education and professionalism. I too have shied away from this for a long time, thinking that the algorithm or the customers will then say goodbye. Exactly the opposite was the case and I then had the strongest selling months!

5. Turn down an order if you notice red flags or if you can’t provide what the buyer is looking for. Otherwise this only makes for unhappy customers, cancelled orders and wasted time. There’s no shame in turning down a project if you realize the scope is too large or the client wants something that’s outside your scope of work. I turn down projects several times a week.

6. Pay attention to your English. And I say that as a non-native English speaker! Fiverr is an international platform, which means English is a must. As a seller you need to be able to have a professional briefing to understand the project. If you don’t understand the client or you talk past each other, it will only lead to problems. If necessary, use free online translators or a language tools to correct mistakes. There is no shame in it, it rather shows that you are trying to do your best in communication.

7. Do not copy anyone and be unique! Every week other sellers are copying my description, even reproducing my work, stealing my portfolio to pass it off as theirs and matching their prices to mine. All in the hope that they will be successful. But who do you want to work with as a client? With the original or the copy?

I just realize this is already a pretty long thread. I’d like to update it every now and then when I think of something new that I think is important. I’m also happy about your comments of course!

Thanks so much for reading! I wish you all the best!

Best regards

Rag

Jut an FYI, sadly, you can only edit your thread for a short length of time after it’s made. My own tips thread is outdated, due to this.

Edited out, thank you for your own edit.

I hope it’s okay if I post my link to it (otherwise please let me know and I’ll delete it)

Number 6, so no. Community Standards & Forum Rules - 2020

Making posts for the Tips categories: In most cases seller tips should be posted by leveled sellers with significant experience and understanding of the Forum Rules and Terms of Service. Tips should not be just copies or quick re-writes of off-Fiverr content or other seller’s posts. Tips should never be used in any self-promotional way. Posts that are considered redundant or otherwise a poor fit may be removed or moved to another category. Repeatedly posting tips that are a poor fit may result in posting restrictions.

Source: Forum Rules + Do's and Dont's - #2 by fonthaunt

[raghnalltuathai]

Jut an FYI, sadly, you can only edit your thread for a short length of time after it’s made. My own tips thread is outdated, due to this.

Edited out, thank you for your own edit.

I hope it’s okay if I post my link to it (otherwise please let me know and I’ll delete it)

Number 6, so no. Community Standards & Forum Rules - 2020

Making posts for the Tips categories: In most cases seller tips should be posted by leveled sellers with significant experience and understanding of the Forum Rules and Terms of Service. Tips should not be just copies or quick re-writes of off-Fiverr content or other seller’s posts. Tips should never be used in any self-promotional way. Posts that are considered redundant or otherwise a poor fit may be removed or moved to another category. Repeatedly posting tips that are a poor fit may result in posting restrictions.

Source: Forum Rules + Do's and Dont's - #2 by fonthaunt

Jut an FYI, sadly, you can only edit your thread for a short length of time after it’s made. My own tips thread is outdated, due to this.

Oh, that’s unfortunate 😕 Didn’t know that, thanks! Is there any specific time limit like “a day or so?”

[imagination7413]

I’m not sure, but you can easily check yourself by looking though your recent replies and seeing when the edit option stops appearing. (This differs, depending on your forum level.)

[vickiespencer]

Thank you for sharing your insights, and congrats on making it to $100,000!

[gongor32]

Since you started to do full time did you ever got into slow month ? Like without order. If so how did you got through that ?

[raghnalltuathai]

Since you started to do full time did you ever got into slow month ? Like without order. If so how did you got through that ?

Well, I never had a month without any orders since then. But I had some very bad months compared to others. The worst month was about $1.200. Still sounds like a lot but I live in a pretty expensive country and have to pay taxes and health insurance as well as my personal fix costs, so these months got me kind of in trouble.

[suhayb10]

Can you send a link to your Fiverr I wanna see. Thanks

[genuineguidance]

Can you send a link to your Fiverr I wanna see. Thanks

All you need to do to see their Gig is click on their name in the forum and it will take you to their forum profile page - highlight and copy their user name and then open a page to search for Gigs on Fiverr and put their name in the search box. Search for User names matching this person’s.

They are not allowed to give their Gig link in this category of the forum and it is easy enough to find them.

Also, if you are thinking that you want to see their profile so you can message them directly to ask for “insider tips and tricks”, I would advise you not to do that. They are not here to be your personal coach. They gave tips above to help you if that is what you need. Messaging sellers whom you want to just pick their brain and not buy their services is a good way to be reported for spam.

GG

[imagination7413]

Can you send a link to your Fiverr I wanna see. Thanks

Nope. The OP can’t without breaking the forum rules.

[saidmahmud]

This is such a nice narrative and informative discussion I have ever read on this Forum. You have pointed out each and every point so well. Hope to see more discussion from you in future. Wish you good luck for your upcoming days.

[gamunu]

Hey guys,

this is quite a bait thread title now, I know. But it’s true though! I’ve been active on Fiverr since 2017, full-time since 2019-2020. Top Rated Seller for over a year if I remember correctly. I don’t want to brag about these $100,000 in income, but rather motivate you. Because when I started, I was still a student, had no idea about online business or Fiverr and had to take away deposit bottles at the end of the month because I didn’t have enough money to buy them.

An investment of $80 (the software I work with) and Fiverr have now resulted almost three years later in me working full-time from home, not having an annoying boss and yes, I do enjoy that freedom!

I’m active on the forum a lot, I’ve had some great conversations here, got super tips, met interesting sellers and would like to give something back today (even if it’s just a little something). So here are a few tips that will hopefully help you as a newbie, but maybe also as a veteran.

1. Know your value! I see so many freelancers selling themselves short! Stand by your skills and your prices. Of course, your rates should be realistic compared to your work time, but never let a buyer tell you what your time, talent and work is worth! The client’s budget has to adapt to your prices and not vice versa. You don’t go to the apple store and ask for a 70% discount on an iPhone because your budget doesn’t allow for more, do you?

2. Stand out from the crowd! I notice this especially when I search for a service as a buyer on Fiverr. In some sections the portfolios, prices and gig descriptions are similar as if they were clones. As a customer, you tend to buy on the off chance then. If you notice that your competition is big, then think about a unique selling proposition and marketing. Make a particularly appealing gig video, a humorous description or fancy samples! Think about your favorite products - they have competition too! So why did you choose your favorite product? Work on your online presence!

3. Prepare yourself for madness. This came to mind when a friend of mine also started his own business online and gave up shortly after because he couldn’t handle the attitude of some buyers. There are great customers! I love working with my regular customers, they are awesome! But a couple of times a week I get requests from people who brazenly want to negotiate your prices, insult you, threaten you (with a bad review for example), want to scam you, badmouth your work, don’t say hello or goodbye, don’t reply, waste your time or cancel your project. Grow a thick skin and be prepared. Don’t take it personally and focus on building long-term relationships with great clients.

4. Experiment with pricing. You don’t have to offer the same prices for years. Don’t be afraid to adjust your prices to your work time, education and professionalism. I too have shied away from this for a long time, thinking that the algorithm or the customers will then say goodbye. Exactly the opposite was the case and I then had the strongest selling months!

5. Turn down an order if you notice red flags or if you can’t provide what the buyer is looking for. Otherwise this only makes for unhappy customers, cancelled orders and wasted time. There’s no shame in turning down a project if you realize the scope is too large or the client wants something that’s outside your scope of work. I turn down projects several times a week.

6. Pay attention to your English. And I say that as a non-native English speaker! Fiverr is an international platform, which means English is a must. As a seller you need to be able to have a professional briefing to understand the project. If you don’t understand the client or you talk past each other, it will only lead to problems. If necessary, use free online translators or a language tools to correct mistakes. There is no shame in it, it rather shows that you are trying to do your best in communication.

7. Do not copy anyone and be unique! Every week other sellers are copying my description, even reproducing my work, stealing my portfolio to pass it off as theirs and matching their prices to mine. All in the hope that they will be successful. But who do you want to work with as a client? With the original or the copy?

I just realize this is already a pretty long thread. I’d like to update it every now and then when I think of something new that I think is important. I’m also happy about your comments of course!

Thanks so much for reading! I wish you all the best!

Best regards

Rag

cancelled orders and wasted time

I don’t know about you. If I cancel my orders, Fiverr remove my gigs from search results right away. Even buyer ordered by mistake LOL

[hikarishinjo]

Congrats !

Would it be too much to ask for a yearly breakdown of these $100,000 ?

I am also seriously considering quitting my corporate job and go full time free-lancing. The hourly rate is just insane.

Hoping to be one those writing such success story someday !

[srpinki]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Congrats for achieving success.
I checked your portfolio it was awesome !

[logosupreme]

Hello Rag,

Loved reading your post and that inspired me to take a look at your profile. And I just felt Wow! - $100.000 with 319 reviews (may be few orders without reviews). So it’s kind of a very inspirational story you’ve ! Also watched your Gig video. It’s indeed funny, creative and inspiring.

Thanks for the motivational dose through the best practical tips, particularly the tip no.3 regarding madness ! In fact all of them.

You may like to take a look at my profile (errr… no promotion… but yeah promotion !!) and feel free to share your suggestions.

Let’s keep in touch.

[marinapomorac]

Congrats !

Would it be too much to ask for a yearly breakdown of these $100,000 ?

I am also seriously considering quitting my corporate job and go full time free-lancing. The hourly rate is just insane.

Hoping to be one those writing such success story someday !

Keep in mind he is doing full 3D animations, and one order is 1K to 2K level for 3-5 minutes video.

Comparing his income to other “smaller” categories skills is not relevant.

It is like pharmacist comparing his salary with brain surgeon.

Most of these “100K earned” sellers are in the niche that bring 1K per order or more.

So everyone should take a step back before jumping to conclusion this income on Fiverr is achievable in general.

It is only achievable in categories where work has high priced values that can not be crashed by overflow of new sellers.

3D animation is not something you can fake, as it is with design, proofreading, content writing, and similar. So you do not have many sellers (no point of scammers to even go there).

My suggestion would be to never set goal for Fiverr to be main and only source of income.

Goal should be stable freelancing and gathering income from multiple sources.

[hikarishinjo]

Keep in mind he is doing full 3D animations, and one order is 1K to 2K level for 3-5 minutes video.

Comparing his income to other “smaller” categories skills is not relevant.

It is like pharmacist comparing his salary with brain surgeon.

Most of these “100K earned” sellers are in the niche that bring 1K per order or more.

So everyone should take a step back before jumping to conclusion this income on Fiverr is achievable in general.

It is only achievable in categories where work has high priced values that can not be crashed by overflow of new sellers.

3D animation is not something you can fake, as it is with design, proofreading, content writing, and similar. So you do not have many sellers (no point of scammers to even go there).

My suggestion would be to never set goal for Fiverr to be main and only source of income.

Goal should be stable freelancing and gathering income from multiple sources.

I completely agree, I am more focusing on the price per hour ratio, and that is technically applicable for everyone in every industry.

If you manage to get 100 clients with 5 dollars projects or 1 client with 500 dollar project, and if the total hour spent is similar : industry does not matter at all.

I’m also planning a strategy to obviously not rely exclusively on Fiverr revenues. To make it the lowest % of my activity actually.

If I asked this question, it is because it is relevant to my industry, my situation and my potential. And yes : I do also have orders of 1k / 2k+ 🙂

Edit : Happy Birthday Marina !!!

[abdelrahman2341]

Congrats !

Would it be too much to ask for a yearly breakdown of these $100,000 ?

I am also seriously considering quitting my corporate job and go full time free-lancing. The hourly rate is just insane.

Hoping to be one those writing such success story someday !

check this out before depending on fiverr 100%

Super quick backstory; I’ve been with Fiverr since 2011, selling for the last couple of years in the Forex category as a Level 2 seller, about to hit the earnings requirement for Top Rated. I’ve qualified for Promoted Gigs, Early Payout and Cash Advance and have only had a couple of cancelled orders in a few hundred sales. It’s very much a side hustle to break up the day, make a couple of sales a day and connect with some fantastic people. Imagine my surprise to discover that my two most pop…

[hikarishinjo]

check this out before depending on fiverr 100%

Super quick backstory; I’ve been with Fiverr since 2011, selling for the last couple of years in the Forex category as a Level 2 seller, about to hit the earnings requirement for Top Rated. I’ve qualified for Promoted Gigs, Early Payout and Cash Advance and have only had a couple of cancelled orders in a few hundred sales. It’s very much a side hustle to break up the day, make a couple of sales a day and connect with some fantastic people. Imagine my surprise to discover that my two most pop…

Never said once I would.

And I’m in translation / voice over :woman_facepalming:t2: Your link is irrelevant as it talks about forex gigs.

[abdelrahman2341]

no it’s was bc of the possibility of getting the gig down without any warnings but whatever, I got your point, best of luck

[frank_d]

Keep in mind he is doing full 3D animations, and one order is 1K to 2K level for 3-5 minutes video.

Comparing his income to other “smaller” categories skills is not relevant.

It is like pharmacist comparing his salary with brain surgeon.

Most of these “100K earned” sellers are in the niche that bring 1K per order or more.

So everyone should take a step back before jumping to conclusion this income on Fiverr is achievable in general.

It is only achievable in categories where work has high priced values that can not be crashed by overflow of new sellers.

3D animation is not something you can fake, as it is with design, proofreading, content writing, and similar. So you do not have many sellers (no point of scammers to even go there).

My suggestion would be to never set goal for Fiverr to be main and only source of income.

Goal should be stable freelancing and gathering income from multiple sources.

So everyone should take a step back before jumping to conclusion this income on Fiverr is achievable in general.

I’m not saying that one’s vertical is irrelevant, but claiming that people should take a step back before they think about making a total of six figures on Fiverr, sounds like conditioning to me personally.

It’s like me back when I was a level 1 seller, reading the blogpost about a woman making millions by being an HR generalist.

I never once thought that:

I’m not in HR, therefore this isn’t for me".

Is it easier to present people with a larger amount when calculating life-long earnings on the platform if you are selling big-ticket items?

Sure. I personally felt like my ego took a punch in the face by superman himself when I met another seller via one of the Ice Breaker events.

He was a developer, and he was making over $500,000 a year on Fiverr. Had over 20 employees, and thought about scaling up.

I felt inspired and saw his earnings as a clear window of what can be achieved. It broke my mental ceiling. I am now working on getting there myself. (or to a version of that closer to what I feel comfortable with)

But a couple of things to note here:

A) by conditioning yourself in general, you are effectively creating a self-fulfiling prophecy.

B) by saying that “oh he makes 3D videos, that’s why” may appear as if you are brushing off just how hard it is for a seller to juggle those 4/5 digit projects each month. It takes a lot of skills, mostly soft skills, to tackle that sort of clientele, consistently.

@raghnalltuathai Keep up the good work, and please share the next part of your journey with us.

[raghnalltuathai]

So everyone should take a step back before jumping to conclusion this income on Fiverr is achievable in general.

I’m not saying that one’s vertical is irrelevant, but claiming that people should take a step back before they think about making a total of six figures on Fiverr, sounds like conditioning to me personally.

It’s like me back when I was a level 1 seller, reading the blogpost about a woman making millions by being an HR generalist.

I never once thought that:

I’m not in HR, therefore this isn’t for me".

Is it easier to present people with a larger amount when calculating life-long earnings on the platform if you are selling big-ticket items?

Sure. I personally felt like my ego took a punch in the face by superman himself when I met another seller via one of the Ice Breaker events.

He was a developer, and he was making over $500,000 a year on Fiverr. Had over 20 employees, and thought about scaling up.

I felt inspired and saw his earnings as a clear window of what can be achieved. It broke my mental ceiling. I am now working on getting there myself. (or to a version of that closer to what I feel comfortable with)

But a couple of things to note here:

A) by conditioning yourself in general, you are effectively creating a self-fulfiling prophecy.

B) by saying that “oh he makes 3D videos, that’s why” may appear as if you are brushing off just how hard it is for a seller to juggle those 4/5 digit projects each month. It takes a lot of skills, mostly soft skills, to tackle that sort of clientele, consistently.

@raghnalltuathai Keep up the good work, and please share the next part of your journey with us.

Hey Frank,

thank you! I definitely will. I think we sometimes forget that we are born all the same. I didn’t wake up someday and was able to create these 3D animated music videos. I started with purchasing a licence and a simple YouTube tutorial. And I’m sure there are even bigger niches.

To get some clients, reputation and reviews I had prices so low I was actually going crazy. I started with a $80 package. For a 3D animation :D. I almost thought about leaving the platform but I worked on my business and marketing and scaled it up year by year. And I’m sure everyone can achieve something like that if he or she really has the intention to do so.

3D animation is not something you can fake, as it is with design, proofreading, content writing, and similar. So you do not have many sellers (no point of scammers to even go there).

You would think so but actually it is full of scammers. They steal animations from YouTube, use it as their portfolio and cut parts of them together to provide “customized music videos” for their clients. Back in the days I was reporting these guys as they are scamming people and stealing others work. Hell, they even steal my portfolio, my descriptions, use the same prices and there’s even some guy who uses the same software and just copies my scripts and concepts but re-animates the exact scenes and created a “new” video out of it. They became more and more by day, so there’s nothing you can do about it actually.

[camerro]

Congrats on your 100k and thank you for sharing your tips!

Actually all my sales are down, after growing continuously for over 3 month and I don’t know why.
5-Star rated Level 1 Seller and from one day to another i don’t get any orders. 😔

[andrewcarpen756]

Awesome achievement, love seeing other members do so good!

[kendal1747]

I am glad that this attitude toward your work has been successful for you. I just wish that everyone felt and acted the same way. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.