Be Successful on Fiverr

[coerdelion]

Background

 

 

·         Fiverr is a platform that puts buyers in touch with sellers for a fee. 

·         Competition is fierce.  As of March 2021 there are around 2.3 million sellers all competing for work from 3.4 million buyers

·         Those figures may look like there are plenty of buyers to go around, but bear in mind that:

o   Some are one offs

o   Some use the same sellers all the time

o   A significant minority of buyers come to Fiverr to get free work and to prey on new sellers

 

Gigs

 

·         Bear in mind that nothing is guaranteed in freelance work

·         Please make sure you have some skills - skills that people are willing to pay for

·         It is not enough to remove image backgrounds through remove.bg - you need to be able to use cutting path tools at the very least.  And you need to be able to use them well

·         Canva is all very well, but not if you're going to sell their stock images as your own

·         Bear in mind that what you might think of as "sharing resources" is viewed on Fiverr as theft - don't copy other people's gig descriptions and/or images.  This will be reported and you may lose your account

·         Gig images are not aspirational - they should be your own work, not stolen from the web

·         If you're selling some form of writing, make sure your grammar, punctuation and spelling indicate that you can complete orders properly.  While most traffic is from India and Pakistan, most buyers are from the USA.  Buyers from the USA expect good English with US English spelling. 

·         If you don't know the difference between US and UK English spelling, do some research

·         Do not sell translations using Google translate.  Google translate is more or less ok for chatting in the inbox, but not for professional translations.  Professional translations require nuance, as well as fluency

·         Unlimited revisions chain you to buyers for the rest of your life.  Limit your revisions and charge an additional fee for revisions over and above that limit

·         Make sure you have an order in place before starting any work

·         Read the Fiverr Terms of Service - they are strictly applied

 

Buyer Requests

 

·         Buyer requests are for buyers, not sellers.  Advertising your gigs through buyer requests is a waste of everyone's time

·         Respond only to requests that you have the skills to complete

·         You don't have to use all 10 responses allowed every day - be particular about your responses

 

Fiverr Forum

 

·         Read first, post when you have something useful to say. 

·         "How I get more order" has been asked and answered thousands of times.  Read responses and put them into practice

·         Fiverr and the Forum are not your family.  Sellers are your competitors.  Some of the experienced sellers are very kind and will try to help.  Don't rely on them doing so when you post rubbish

·         Don't post rubbish - if you're not getting orders even though you "stay online all day and all night" that indicates staying online isn't working.  Not for you, not for anyone.  Stop repeating it

·         Posting on the forum will not get you orders.  Particularly if you post rubbish

·         Bear in mind that in discussion, people who disagree with your opinion are not impuning your honour.  Stick to the point.  No name calling.

·         The forum is a multinational platform where everyone is equal.  People of all races, genders and religions interact with each other on the forum.  Treat everyone with respect and don't expect them to agree with you

 

I haven't covered everything - no doubt others will want to add their own insights

 

TL;DR

 

·         Sellers are not co-workers or family, they're competitors

·         Don't lie about your skills

·         Don't steal from other sellers or the web

·         The forum is for fun, not spam

·         Treat everyone with respect

 

[gajuseidi]

Yes, yes, and yes!

These are great insights and advice for every seller. Sadly, I have a feeling that sellers who need to hear this the most, will most likely skip it, spam the comment section and go on about their day, staying online, sending generic replies to all the buyer requests they have and so on. Great thread, nonetheless.

[vickiespencer]

3 hours ago, coerdelion said:

If you don't know the difference between US and UK English spelling, do some research

I also get requests for Australian and Canadian English.

4 hours ago, coerdelion said:

Google translate is more or less ok for chatting in the inbox,

Even then google translate is sometimes inadequate. I have buyers who have used it to communicate with me and sometimes it takes a lot of back and forth for me to understand what they want.
 

[coerdelion]

58 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

I also get requests for Australian and Canadian English.

That's UK English.  It's only US English that is different to UK ... of course some vocabulary is different ...

1 hour ago, vickiespencer said:

Even then google translate is sometimes inadequate. I have buyers who have used it to communicate with me and sometimes it takes a lot of back and forth for me to understand what they want.
 

Very true, MissV - google often comes out quite garbled ...

[vickiespencer]

5 hours ago, coerdelion said:

It's only US English that is different to UK

Canadian, Australian, UK and US English writing varies more in the way they do punctuation and spelling.

 

[zeus777]

6 hours ago, coerdelion said:

google often comes out quite garbled ...

Some of them are so hilariously off, it will make you laugh and angry at the same time, especially when I am asked to proofread a translation which was done by a "professional." 
My recent favorite was this translation for those silicon mouth guard pieces you put in your mouth while you sleep to prevent you from grinding on your teeth.
The "mouth guard" was translated into "dental security guard" and yes, I reported that seller. Sadly she's still around. 

 

But like @gajuseidi said, this post will soon be filled with thank you spams by people who took 2 seconds to read.
It's nothing new at this point, but when I go to the "tips for seller" section, I'm seeing new posts saying stuff like
"The 2 tips you need to know to make sells" or "The best 5 tips" and "The must-follow 3 tips" and of course "The top 10 tip list."
I didn't bother clicking on them but I bet it tells you to stay online for 20 hours and post stuff on Facebook followed with tons of "Thank you" posts.
I guess the "The best <insert random number> tip" must be the new trend. The "I got my <insert random number>th order" posts needs to move aside.