Level 1! ... Now what? Advice please :)

[kylieobr]

Or at least, I’m expecting to hit Level 1 tomorrow. Yay! I had my first order April 6, my second order April 30, and it’s been a hectic month and a half since then. I haven’t even filled my max of 7 gigs yet and now I’ll have space for 10. 😅 I’ve been waiting to hit Level 1 to edit my gig prices and delivery time since I’m currently overworking and underselling for the hours I’m doing, and cutting myself short on time to myself. Therefore, I had a couple of questions about how best to go about editing my gigs. I’ve tried searching but a lot of the information that comes up is several years old and I realise there’s been updates to the platform.

• Level 2 - Be an active seller for 120 days. I assume this carries on after hitting Level 1 from Day 61? Same with orders, earnings, etc.?

• Will having 1 gig paused affect your active status, or only if ALL of your gigs are paused or if your account is in vacation mode?

• From what I can tell, pausing a gig is NOT recommended. Is this still the case? 😕 Seems like a waste of a good feature if you can’t use it without wrecking your account’s rankings. As a buyer, I’d prefer to see a gig with a 1 week delivery on pause, rather than place an order with a delivery time of 30 days. I guess this is where limiting orders in the queue helps as well, but this isn’t a feature I’ve used yet. I will extend my delivery time to a new average, but in the mean time, there is one gig I would like a break from for 3-4 weeks or so. What should I do? Pause it? Extend my delivery time out to 30 days and limit the orders to 1 or 2? I was also finding information about ‘average delivery time’ but cannot find this anywhere, so was this an old feature?

• How much do you increase your prices? $5 now and $5 later sort of thing, or are you better doing one increase of $15? etc. The same gig I was talking about above I’d like to completely change up the gig packages, so quite a bit of changes to the gig itself…

• I’ve had discussions with my partner about him maybe putting some gigs on my account too since it’s been going well. From what I understand, sharing accounts isn’t an issue as long as it’s clearly stated; the problems come more when there’s two accounts on the one IP that you’ve then got to contact CS for? He did have an account, but he never had any sales and hasn’t used it since I joined. Does anyone have a joint account with someone and have any pros/cons to share apart from the obvious all messages going to one account? Between us we’ve got skills across the board, so also wonder how that might be if we don’t have a niche–we hate them! 😅

• Should I expect an increase in orders now? 😂 As I’m unemployed, this is actually starting to feel like a job, if I can get my gig times/prices right. It’s not a living yet, but it’s a start. I never expected this to go well when my partner suggested it, and surprised at how fast it’s gone. I’m sure I’ve earnt more here in two months than I did on Etsy in 3 years! I’ve been really lucky to pick up some great return buyers already and every single person has left a review :star_struck: It’s a good feeling!

If you’ve read this far, thank you! And you’re welcome to share your own achievements! 😁 Have a great week!

[enunciator]

Congratz on being at the cusp of achieving Level One!

1. All the prerequisites carry over, so you only have to wait 60 more days instead of 120, receive $1600 more in net earnings instead of $2000, etc.

2. Pausing one gig knocks only that one gig out of the algorithm and site visibility. Pausing all your gigs will mean all your gigs are inactive and not visible until reactivated. Vacation mode is sort of a quick pause for all gigs, but buyers can still message you and if you did not check the option off, may be able to place orders via direct links.

3. This is still up to debate. Some sellers swear against using Out Of Office and say pausing is preferable, while other sellers regularly use OOO to good effect. Extending delivery date is an option, but modifying gigs also runs the risk of temporarily knocking gigs out of the algorithm.

4. That’s entirely up to you! Since you now have a bit of a track record on the site compared to a brand new seller, an increase in pricing may definitely be warranted!

5. If he still has an account, he should use that account instead of yours, but should contact CS first about sharing an IP address.

6. Maybe or maybe not. “Level One Hell” is a common phenomenon documented numerous times on the forum. For a small number of very fortunate sellers, Fiverr is a reliable source of steady income. For most others, Fiverr is a roller coaster of order famines and floods (if lucky!). For an even larger amount of sellers, Fiverr, unfortunately, is an endless famine and bleak wasteland. :wind_face:

[kylieobr]

Congratz on being at the cusp of achieving Level One!

1. All the prerequisites carry over, so you only have to wait 60 more days instead of 120, receive $1600 more in net earnings instead of $2000, etc.

2. Pausing one gig knocks only that one gig out of the algorithm and site visibility. Pausing all your gigs will mean all your gigs are inactive and not visible until reactivated. Vacation mode is sort of a quick pause for all gigs, but buyers can still message you and if you did not check the option off, may be able to place orders via direct links.

3. This is still up to debate. Some sellers swear against using Out Of Office and say pausing is preferable, while other sellers regularly use OOO to good effect. Extending delivery date is an option, but modifying gigs also runs the risk of temporarily knocking gigs out of the algorithm.

4. That’s entirely up to you! Since you now have a bit of a track record on the site compared to a brand new seller, an increase in pricing may definitely be warranted!

5. If he still has an account, he should use that account instead of yours, but should contact CS first about sharing an IP address.

6. Maybe or maybe not. “Level One Hell” is a common phenomenon documented numerous times on the forum. For a small number of very fortunate sellers, Fiverr is a reliable source of steady income. For most others, Fiverr is a roller coaster of order famines and floods (if lucky!). For an even larger amount of sellers, Fiverr, unfortunately, is an endless famine and bleak wasteland. :wind_face:

Thanks for your detailed reply! 😁

So pausing one gig shouldn’t affect my active seller status then? I wouldn’t have thought so, but I had to question it. It seems whatever I decide to do about editing my gigs will be a bit of a gamble which is precisely what I was afraid of! 🙈

And I asked about my partner’s gig if he would maybe be better closing his account (don’t think he has any active gigs anyway) and putting his stuff on mine, so we only have to upkeep one account’s feedback and rankings! We’d of course update the profile to reflect it as a two-person team. I know some people have done it, but not sure if there’s one way that’s more advisable for success! :thinking: On the other hand, if we keep things separate and rankings do drop, then it’s only happening to one account!

As you say, it’s a rollercoaster and certainly not a reliable income every month. 😓 The marketing you have to do (or lack thereof) on Fiverr is fantastic, but it comes with consequences!

[visualstudios]

Now you should keep doing what you have been doing, since that seems to be working.

Optimal pricing is a matter of finding the sweet spot between price per order and order volume. It will vary. And that has very little to do with your seller level.

Paused gigs make absolutely no difference, it’s as if they don’t exist.

I would advice against going out of office, it can throw the algorithm completely out of the loop. Just increase the delivery time to a month, if you want to take a week off. Or increase prices enough that nobody will order. That ensures your gig will still be online, but you won’t have to work, which is the objective.

A team can work on one account, no rules against that.

[enunciator]

Now you should keep doing what you have been doing, since that seems to be working.

Optimal pricing is a matter of finding the sweet spot between price per order and order volume. It will vary. And that has very little to do with your seller level.

Paused gigs make absolutely no difference, it’s as if they don’t exist.

I would advice against going out of office, it can throw the algorithm completely out of the loop. Just increase the delivery time to a month, if you want to take a week off. Or increase prices enough that nobody will order. That ensures your gig will still be online, but you won’t have to work, which is the objective.

A team can work on one account, no rules against that.

A team can work on one account, no rules against that.

A “team” operating within a single account is absolutely a common thing, particularly in specific categories, but your partner should close his existing account if deciding he becomes a part of your account, just to be safe.

[kylieobr]

Now you should keep doing what you have been doing, since that seems to be working.

Optimal pricing is a matter of finding the sweet spot between price per order and order volume. It will vary. And that has very little to do with your seller level.

Paused gigs make absolutely no difference, it’s as if they don’t exist.

I would advice against going out of office, it can throw the algorithm completely out of the loop. Just increase the delivery time to a month, if you want to take a week off. Or increase prices enough that nobody will order. That ensures your gig will still be online, but you won’t have to work, which is the objective.

A team can work on one account, no rules against that.

Hmm. :thinking: Hadn’t thought about increasing prices to a price no one would order. Seems a bit risky too, no? As it is I’ll probably pause or increase the timeframe, and somehow try & squeeze some extra words into the already full gig description to make room for a note! 😅 Thanks for your reply!

[kylieobr]

A team can work on one account, no rules against that.

A “team” operating within a single account is absolutely a common thing, particularly in specific categories, but your partner should close his existing account if deciding he becomes a part of your account, just to be safe.

Absolutely! 😊 It’s only been in the talks so far.

[visualstudios]

Hmm. :thinking: Hadn’t thought about increasing prices to a price no one would order. Seems a bit risky too, no? As it is I’ll probably pause or increase the timeframe, and somehow try & squeeze some extra words into the already full gig description to make room for a note! 😅 Thanks for your reply!

What’s the big risk with it? You can use pricing to control order flow, it’s very effective.

[kylieobr]

What’s the big risk with it? You can use pricing to control order flow, it’s very effective.

I just figured with every edit of your gig there’s a chance of going up or down in the listings (but we all need to inevitably edit at some point 😅), and surely upping the price and getting fewer clicks/views would affect that. At least with increasing the time the buyer would still click into your gig before they found that out. But good to know if that’s not the case and this is another option available to us!