New Seller trying to make ends meet

[wikusaurus]

Hi, i am Wiku Sunda Laras from Indonesia, i mainly do English to Bahasa Indonesia and vice versa, and sometime some copy typing too.
i’ve been here on fiverr for about a week, and my gigs is not making any sales 🙁 do you have any tips for freelance translator? what do i need to do to make my gigs noticed? beside sending out offer to everyone in the mail, spam mail makes me feel bad about myself.
also, if there is indonesian translator here, i would like to seek your advice. thank you

Best regard.
-Wiku

[genuineguidance]

Hi, i am Wiku Sunda Laras from Indonesia, i mainly do English to Bahasa Indonesia and vice versa, and sometime some copy typing too.

i’ve been here on fiverr for about a week, and my gigs is not making any sales 🙁 do you have any tips for freelance translator? what do i need to do to make my gigs noticed? beside sending out offer to everyone in the mail, spam mail makes me feel bad about myself.

also, if there is indonesian translator here, i would like to seek your advice. thank you

Best regard.

-Wiku

beside sending out offer to everyone in the mail, spam mail

I would suggest spamming is not the way to go if you desire to sell anything here. Also, who were you going to spam? If you were thinking of trying to message users on Fiverr to offer services, do NOT do that - that will get your account banned pretty quickly, as Fiverr does not allow that.

The thing is, do you only have this one Gig? When making a Gig, you have to view it from a potential buyer pool: how large is that pool? is the service I offer really in demand? do I have a ton of competition?

I would imagine that translating English to Bahasa Indonesia and vice versa, may not be that in demand - seems like a very niche area of translation. That may be why you are not getting orders or traction. Someone has to need the service you offer.

GG

[tenebres_telrei]

Basically what GG has said. Additionally, you could check out gigs of the successful translators, see if you can pick up something that may help you improve your own gig even further. Not like do a copy/paste but more like take some inspiration. Everything is measured in comparison, after all.

[wikusaurus]

beside sending out offer to everyone in the mail, spam mail

I would suggest spamming is not the way to go if you desire to sell anything here. Also, who were you going to spam? If you were thinking of trying to message users on Fiverr to offer services, do NOT do that - that will get your account banned pretty quickly, as Fiverr does not allow that.

The thing is, do you only have this one Gig? When making a Gig, you have to view it from a potential buyer pool: how large is that pool? is the service I offer really in demand? do I have a ton of competition?

I would imagine that translating English to Bahasa Indonesia and vice versa, may not be that in demand - seems like a very niche area of translation. That may be why you are not getting orders or traction. Someone has to need the service you offer.

GG

well i guess english to indonesian translation is not really in demand and besides, the people that really need this service has already have their preferences, ugh this let me down a bit hehe.

about the spam messages, i’ve read that people sugesting seller to send out offer and fiverr let you do that for 10 times max. now that you tell me this could gets me banned, i will not do that.

anyway, thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.

[genuineguidance]

well i guess english to indonesian translation is not really in demand and besides, the people that really need this service has already have their preferences, ugh this let me down a bit hehe.

about the spam messages, i’ve read that people sugesting seller to send out offer and fiverr let you do that for 10 times max. now that you tell me this could gets me banned, i will not do that.

anyway, thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.

ugesting seller to send out offer and fiverr let you do that for 10 times max.

Ok, what you are referring to is called “Buyer’s Requests” which is OK to send. Go to your seller DASHBOARD and the very LAST link will say MORE. Click on that and if there are any requests in the categories you have Gigs in, you will see them - or should anyways. Not sure if new sellers see a lot of requests. It is perfectly fine to respond to Buyer’s Requests.

What you do NOT want to do, is either message other users on Fiverr out of the blue (they need to message YOU first to not be considered spam) OR message those who post requests - NEVER message anyone first UNLESS you are buying or interested in that seller’s service.

Hope that clears it up.

ugh this let me down a bit hehe.

Well, then, figure out if you have any other “talents” that you can offer on Fiverr if this particular one is too narrow or focused and has a small audience. You can make I think up to 7 Gigs when new - so take advantage of that - but only offer services you can actually fulfill professionally.

GG

[miiila]

I’m not an Indonesian translator but a translator, here’s a tip I’d give any translator: Don’t offer vice versa if you’re not really really really good in your second language.

Don’t worry about how it looks if you don’t offer vice versa as so many other translators do, in fact, it’s “industry standard” to translate into your first language only.

And genuineguidance’s tip of finding something that people need is a great tip for anyone - as long as you can deliver it in a quality that people are willing to pay for it, of course.

Don’t be discouraged from offering translation into your first language, though, or things there’s low demand for, even if the interest may be low, niches can be quite nice too, and you can still offer something else in addition if you can do it well enough, or take the time and learn something well enough to offer it as a service.
Drop things with zero demand, though, but give it some time before you decide that the demand is zero.

That 10 times max thing you’re referring to probably is Buyer Requests, those are offers you send to people looking for a service through the BR feature (look it up in Fiverr’s help pages if you haven’t yet, and type it into the forum search too, to find tips on how to use it well) and not spam (unless you send an offer for something they aren’t asking for, obvs.)
Don’t ever send messages to offer your service to random users, not even 1, that’s a great way to get reported and a warning, or perhaps even ban.

[tunlary]

I am not an Indonesian translator, But I can render Any international translation service.
The best thing I think you should do is to ensure staying online 24/7.

1. Get familiar with people/companies that are liable to hire you for you service.

2. Tell friends that this is what you offer.

3. Let people in your locality recognize what you do.

4. Provide the the means of accessing you.

I think that should help you.

[enunciator]

I am not an Indonesian translator, But I can render Any international translation service.

The best thing I think you should do is to ensure staying online 24/7.

1. Get familiar with people/companies that are liable to hire you for you service.

2. Tell friends that this is what you offer.

3. Let people in your locality recognize what you do.

4. Provide the the means of accessing you.

I think that should help you.

The best thing I think you should do is to ensure staying online 24/7.

No. NO. NO! NO!!!

The only way of having that dumb little green dot active all the time on one’s profile is by using browser auto-refreshers, and using them will get your account suspended or eventually terminated for violating Fiverr’s security, safety, and fairness protocol.

Great gigs get sales, regardless of the seller being online or offline.

[miiila]

I am not an Indonesian translator, But I can render Any international translation service.

The best thing I think you should do is to ensure staying online 24/7.

1. Get familiar with people/companies that are liable to hire you for you service.

2. Tell friends that this is what you offer.

3. Let people in your locality recognize what you do.

4. Provide the the means of accessing you.

I think that should help you.

, But I can render Any international translation service.

I hope you vetted the many native speakers of all the languages who must be working for you then very carefully (both regarding the quality of work they produce, as well as regarding whether they meet deadlines reliably, ask for clarifications when anything is unclear, do revisions if requested, etc.) or your buyers might not be very happy, and your career might be short-lived.

In case you work alone, see my advice for any translator above, only offer translation into your first language (and even that only if you master it well enough to charge money for it).

---

And definitely don’t recommend staying online 24/7 to sellers who might work alone and don’t have a team of sorts behind their account, we don’t want anyone to die of sleep deprivation, right? 😎

[wikusaurus]

I’m not an Indonesian translator but a translator, here’s a tip I’d give any translator: Don’t offer vice versa if you’re not really really really good in your second language.

Don’t worry about how it looks if you don’t offer vice versa as so many other translators do, in fact, it’s “industry standard” to translate into your first language only.

And genuineguidance’s tip of finding something that people need is a great tip for anyone - as long as you can deliver it in a quality that people are willing to pay for it, of course.

Don’t be discouraged from offering translation into your first language, though, or things there’s low demand for, even if the interest may be low, niches can be quite nice too, and you can still offer something else in addition if you can do it well enough, or take the time and learn something well enough to offer it as a service.

Drop things with zero demand, though, but give it some time before you decide that the demand is zero.

That 10 times max thing you’re referring to probably is Buyer Requests, those are offers you send to people looking for a service through the BR feature (look it up in Fiverr’s help pages if you haven’t yet, and type it into the forum search too, to find tips on how to use it well) and not spam (unless you send an offer for something they aren’t asking for, obvs.)

Don’t ever send messages to offer your service to random users, not even 1, that’s a great way to get reported and a warning, or perhaps even ban.

i’m not doing any vice versa translation yet, because i’m not that confident in my english skill especially grammar.

thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, i really apreciate it.

best regards

-Wiku