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How do I write a cover letter or buyer request?

f_graphics

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f_graphics Newbie

f_graphics

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HI, I am new at fiverr but an experienced freelancer since 2007. I have some tips for new sellers to use the “See Available Projects” section.

Here are some of the things you MUST keep in mind while writing for Available Projects:

  1. Read the brief:
    Read the summary, at least, TWICE before writing.

  2. Are you the best fit?
    Make sure you understand what the buyer exactly wants. If you don’t understand or if you think you aren’t the absolute BEST FIT for the job, don’t waste your time and the buyers. Besides, you only get a fixed number of proposals you can send every day. Use them wisely.

  3. Keep it Simple:
    If you have decided to write for a project, keep it short, simple and to the point. Buyers can see your basic information from your profile (and they would). You don’t need to go into that detail in the bid.

  4. Don’t Use the Same proposal for every job:
    Some of the sellers are in the habit of using same scripted bids for every job. Buyers can smell that from a mile and are offended by it. If you cannot take out the time to write a customized proposal or bid for them, how will you take the time to produce high-quality original work for them?

  5. Use friendly, conversational tone:
    It is not necessary to use complex technical words to impress buyers into hiring you. Most of the buyers are impressed by your originality. The more personal your proposal is, the more are your chances of getting hired. Address the buyer by their name at least twice in the project.

  6. Tell the buyer what you can do for them:
    Give the buyer a reason to hire you. You are a 22-year-old graphic designer with 15years of experience (apparently you started designing at age 7. Seriously?) You have one course or training or degrees in graphic design blah blah. There is a 98.999% chance there are plenty like you saying the same things.

Tell the buyer exactly why they should hire you and not anyone else from among the 20-30ish proposals they receive. They have a problem they would like solved. Tell them how you will solve their problem.

  1. Address the buyer’s needs in the first sentence:
    You can win or lose the bidding war based on the first sentence you write in your proposal. If you were a buyer with some 20-30 proposals to go through, you would only be gliding through all of them, paying attention only when something caught your eye right away.
    Make sure the first sentence of your proposal addresses your buyer’s needs, discuss your prior experience with similar jobs in later judgements.

  2. Proofread:
    Use correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Always improve your proposal before sending it. A rough and randomly written proposal will give the buyer the impression that you aren’t very serious about their job.

  3. Offer higher prices:
    This works out better than one because high prices are perceived to mean more top quality. By offering high priced services, you are establishing yourself as an experienced freelancer who is new to the website but know his/her worth.

I hope you find this article and these samples useful. Go hit Fiverr right away and use these strategies to find your next big client… Happy Fiverring!

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kk_studio Rookie

kk_studio

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Besides not seeing much of generated buyers requests the thing that bothers me somewhat is the absolute misunderstanding of the term animation and explainer videos.
I personally think that most buyers either don’t know how long it takes to make an animated explainer video of even one minute,so their lack of awareness about this thing makes it a little bit hard for me to negotiate a fair price even though it loses the selling appeal.So as a comparatively new seller I just have to put in four days of continuos work with straight three hours,regularly for fifteen dollars.

Just venting some frustration.No need to get disheartened.
Learn-Learn-Learn.Work-work-work

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benjamscott Rookie

benjamscott

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I will be honest I am shocked by the lack of care taken over the buyer requests. Would you walk in a shop and ask for something which takes a few hours and expect them to understand awful English orders, blatant angry demands, asking for everything for $5 and always in a day. Not sure what gets delivered to these buyers but I expect it’s an awful end result. When people undervalue work of proper sellers because of their poor requests asking for cheap quality and fast you wonder what world they live in

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fogi Contributor

fogi

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As a quality seller, why would I craft a personalized response, knowing there are at least 5 sellers who’d already offered something for 5 bucks.

  • Do you really want the buyer who accepts those $5 offers? I don’t. Those buyers are not for me 🙂
  • It doesn’t matter if there are 5 or 25 offers before you. Most of them are templates so it should be rather easy for your offer to stand out. I’ve had several clients who told me that my offer was by far the highest, but they accepted mine because my offer was actually personalized. There are plenty of sellers offering entire websites for $5. Why do you think buyers choose to pay $900 for mine and there are plenty of others selling at even higher prices 🙂

A good customer who knows what they want and what it’s worth will pick your offer as long as you can explain the value of your service.

If you’re not getting replies to your offers then either you’re bidding on the wrong requests or you should review how you present your service.

I think the bigger problem here is that there aren’t enough decent requests to even bid on. A lot of them expect the world for $5.

Totally agree, we both say we don’t want to waste energy on poorly written customer request, who are likely to be problem clients for 5 bucks. Instead, go for large orders, with Quality offers.

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uxreview Collaborator

uxreview

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The buyer request section should be upgraded in my opinion too.

1.90% of the buyer requests are too generic. “I need a logo” Without specifics, how would I offer something? It could be a 5 dollar job, but it could easily be 50. It’s a setup for disputes.

2. Yes, there sellers spamming it, just ignore them.

3. I feel like it’s a price competition, and most requests have 10+ responses. As a quality seller, why would I craft a personalized response, knowing there are at least 5 sellers who’d already offered something for 5 bucks. I have submitted so far 20 proposals, got zero orders. And sometimes I did offered cheap, less than the budget.

As a quality seller, why would I craft a personalized response, knowing there are at least 5 sellers who’d already offered something for 5 bucks.

  • Do you really want the buyer who accepts those $5 offers? I don’t. Those buyers are not for me 🙂
  • It doesn’t matter if there are 5 or 25 offers before you. Most of them are templates so it should be rather easy for your offer to stand out. I’ve had several clients who told me that my offer was by far the highest, but they accepted mine because my offer was actually personalized. There are plenty of sellers offering entire websites for $5. Why do you think buyers choose to pay $900 for mine and there are plenty of others selling at even higher prices 🙂

A good customer who knows what they want and what it’s worth will pick your offer as long as you can explain the value of your service.

If you’re not getting replies to your offers then either you’re bidding on the wrong requests or you should review how you present your service.

I think the bigger problem here is that there aren’t enough decent requests to even bid on. A lot of them expect the world for $5.

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cagricilara Apprentice

cagricilara

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The buyer request section should be upgraded in my opinion too.

1.90% of the buyer requests are too generic. “I need a logo” Without specifics, how would I offer something? It could be a 5 dollar job, but it could easily be 50. It’s a setup for disputes.

2. Yes, there sellers spamming it, just ignore them.

3. I feel like it’s a price competition, and most requests have 10+ responses. As a quality seller, why would I craft a personalized response, knowing there are at least 5 sellers who’d already offered something for 5 bucks. I have submitted so far 20 proposals, got zero orders. And sometimes I did offered cheap, less than the budget.

The buyer request section should be upgraded in my opinion too.

Totally agree with you. As a seller, I send around 10 offer in a day and get works daily from them.

However, I did not send any offer in last 30 days. I cant find any realistic offer. Either there is a lack of information or unrealistic low budget.

Another problem is sellers’ requests that there are lots of spammers.

Also, lack of information causes cancellation. However, sometimes it seems I can do the job but need more information to clear every step. I send an average offer and ask more information from buyer to discuss about project and delivery time. Buyer did not reply message and just accepted offer. Than want many extra works. Such issues, Fiverr protects buyers. Fiverr says if I send offer, I just accept the price and the information given is sufficient.

Maybe there should be a message button to contact buyer for more information or discuss about project.

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fogi Contributor

fogi

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The buyer request section should be upgraded in my opinion too.
1.90% of the buyer requests are too generic. “I need a logo” Without specifics, how would I offer something? It could be a 5 dollar job, but it could easily be 50. It’s a setup for disputes.
2. Yes, there sellers spamming it, just ignore them.
3. I feel like it’s a price competition, and most requests have 10+ responses. As a quality seller, why would I craft a personalized response, knowing there are at least 5 sellers who’d already offered something for 5 bucks. I have submitted so far 20 proposals, got zero orders. And sometimes I did offered cheap, less than the budget.

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Guest nypox7

Guest nypox7

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As a buyer, i need some services also. I have tried to submit a request to Buyer Request and i was disapointed. There were lots of template message. People even did not read what i wrote.

I do not understand why do not spend a bit more time and read carefully than write as buyers need.

The best moment is when I need for example a cover photo and they respond with

“Design outstanding modern logo within 12hrs Best Quality Logo on Fiverr / Best quality Logo I’ll Design an OUTSTANDING LOGO with my creativity blabalba”

!

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amiriqbal01 Newbie

amiriqbal01

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Hi Everyone,
I’m here to talk about a major issue that most of buyers as well as sellers face on Fiverr, which is misuse of buyer request section.As a seller,I noticed that most of the buyer request section is filled with spamming and ads of sellers themselves.Which I think is a misuse, because this is meant to be for buyers not sellers.
There are some tips for sellers:

  1. Don’t spam this section with your own ads, as this will have a poor impression on buyers and no one would like to order even a single gig from you.
  2. Don’t ask to buy your gigs in the inbox section of buyers.
  3. Prove your worth and value of your gigs through quality work and hard work.
    I hope that these tips will help new sellers here.
    Thanks.
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myskillsforsale Newbie

myskillsforsale

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From the seller standpoint I agree wholeheartedly.

From the buyer standpoint… Well, let’s put it this way: a buyer puts up a request and gets 30 responses. 25 of those are spammy, broken English, unrelated, or people with outrageous offers. The other 5 are perhaps related, perhaps intelligible, perhaps exactly what the buyer wants…

But if you get 25 bad responses from a single subcategory of Fiverr, what would it be like if everyone could see you? Buyers would be drowned in so much spam they’d never come back.

So as publishingmaven said – make some gigs in your strong areas. Especially as you’re just starting out, there’s no penalty to tweaking, deleting, or totally redesigning a gig. Just remember to stay within the ToS when making your gig and conducting your business!

A quick last note regarding Buyers Request… even though you’ll see tons of sellers advertising in Buyers Request, don’t do it! First, it’s ineffective as buyers don’t look at the page, and second, it’s spammy and can get you kicked from the site.

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chbuyer Newbie

chbuyer

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And taking a look at your portfolio, you have beautiful professional designs! So yes, focus on getting people to check out your gig. Then I think it’s just a matter of them seeing if your style fits what they want. 🙂

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chbuyer Newbie

chbuyer

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It kind of sounds like you’re overselling yourself. Your proposal sounds more like it’s about you than the client.

First, I would suggest taking out the ‘I hope you’re doing good’ part. It feels like it’s been copy and pasted, and you’re saying ‘I hope you’re doing good’ to a stranger. You really should only say this to someone you know. It’s not really a professional greeting.

Also, instead of saying that you’re a level two seller and rated 5 stars (which is obvious from someone checking out your profile), focus on the problem they have that you can solve.

Also, it may not be a good idea to use ‘I’d like to help you as well’ because it sounds like your needs. It’s clear you want to help, you sent the offer! Instead, use something more confident like ‘I’ve had many happy customers and can help you as well.’ The ‘can’ shows that you’re capable.

You say ‘I’ve understood your request and I am confident about my skills and experience,’ but ‘understood your request’ is vague and ‘I am confident about my skills and experience’ makes it sound like you’re trying to prove you’re confident, and not that you are. Instead, what request have you understood? What specific problem do they have (maybe they need a design that’s eye-catching) and how can you solve that problem? If they want an eye-catching design, tell them that you’ve created eye-catching designs for client and they can check out your gig to see them.

‘So you should hire me’ is something I wouldn’t highly recommend not saying. It sounds like you’re pushing them to hire you/ sounding a little desperate. When someone asks me to ‘hire them’ or ‘choose them’ it makes me feel like they just need the work and that they’re not professional. ‘Feel free to contact with me any time’ makes you seem like you have a lot of free time. Instead, I would suggest ‘If you’re interested, send me a message.’ It’s straight to the point and seems more professional. You’re putting the choice in their hands.

After that, you should just end it. You want to end with contact, not keep selling yourself. They can see you have 100 % guarantee and offer refunds in your profile. Also, ‘Just inbox me, and we can get started…’ is pushy. It’s like you’re saying, ‘you want me, so choose me already, all you have to do is message me.’ I never choose people who are pushy.

Overall, you’re a designer so what you’re really selling is your portfolio (the images on your gig). Before I ever buy from a designer, I look at their gig photos to see if their images match what I’m looking for. So you want to get them to check out your gig. The best way to do this is to show that you have experience (I think it’s enough to say you’re a professional designer and have designed ___ (whatever you’ve designed). Then address their problem (such as needing an eye-catching design for Fiverr) and show how you can help with that problem. Finish off with telling them to check out your profile to see your work and send you a message if they’re interested.

That’ll shorten your offer to about 3-4 sentences, but come across much more professional and client-focused. And I think you’ll have better results.

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asadzia Newbie

asadzia

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Hey!
This is my proposal…but l’m not getting orders. please check it out. If you can send me good proposal for my graphic design…because my English is weak…

Hello

I hope you’re doing good

I am a professional graphic designer with 3 years of experience in design. Level Two seller & Rated a full 5-stars by many happy customers! And now I’d like to help you as well.
I’ve understood your request and I am confident about my skills and experiences. So you should hire me.Feel free to contact with me any time. I will deliver you your order within 24 hour and I will assist you until you are satisfied.

100% satisfaction guaranteed(I will offer refund if you are not satisfied with my work).

Just inbox me, and we can get started…
Regards,
Asad Zia

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