benefits Isn't a 20% a bit abusive?

[jacoboolsson]

Hey! I'm new to fiverr,

I don't know if people find it fair or are cool about the platform getting the 20% of the income creators get from their clients. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't want fiverr to turn into a monthly payment site for you to work on, but maybe it could be interesting that whenever you level up as a seller you get extra benefits on this matter. Maybe turn it into a 10% by getting the last seller level? I don't know. Right now I feel like for me there isn't much of a point to grow my seller level. I do get a bunch of clicks, more than what I need right now. I don't need extra gigs, I'm a one trick pony of what I do. So what is the point for me? I guess it looks cool to have some recognition or having a badge, but yeah, that's all. Let me know what you think! I'm actually pretty interested on what is people opinion on this matter. I know this is easily fixed by inflating the price from my gigs, but I want to make it fair for my costumers as well. Sorry if this is something that has been talked about in the past over and over (I feel like it has, Idk). I appreciate you taking the time to read me mumbling about something I've not much of an idea.

Happy new year!

[gwyneth_galvin]

Yes. It is. But prepare yourself for a lot of comments saying "if you don't like it, leave" and "fiverr is a business not a charity" because some folks here don't believe you can criticize the society you participate in 😅

 

* you could argue that getting top rated seller is worth it for getting your money faster, and it is, but if anything it makes the 2-week wait time for lower-rated sellers seem unnecessarily cruel.

I do think having a higher-rated profile has helped my gigs stand out though. I can also be a little pickier these days which is lucky.

[frank_d]

It’s a matter of perception.

Fiverr isn’t taking 20% of your hard-earned cash.

It is exposing your offering to thousands of buyers in its marketplace and then facilitates the financial transaction, the actual order, all communication and file sharing, invoicing, etc

So if you think about it, you get to keep 80% of what business Fiverr brings you. 
(Btw in my field it is typical to get a 20% finder’s fee when bringing a client to an agency)

Business you wouldn’t earn if not on the platform.

If you know how much money you want to make, then add an additional 20% on your price, so that Fiverr’s fee is not as impactful.

It’s not a “take it or leave it” situation.

It’s how you frame the problem and how you choose to act on it.

[callyofficial]

I feel the 20% is justified. Before I came to the Fiverr platform I was doing the same work and was constantly spending on Facebook ads to find clients, and those ads got me nowhere near the results Fiverr brought me. Not to mention the time spent constantly tweaking the ads, and very often getting frustrated that they weren't working as well as I wanted them to. Also the work I had was completely inconsistent. Some months would be great, others terrible. 

In a matter of months being on the Fiverr platform the work became steady and I slowed down my ad spend until I no longer needed to spend on advertising, and more importantly this freed up lots of time as I no longer needed to sit there for hours working on ad campaigns and testing and tweaking parameters, something I never enjoyed doing.

I can see why many would think 20% was a big chunk of 'their' earnings, but all you need to do is change your perspective see it as you paying for a service. Not only do you get access to a huge amount of potential buyers, looking for what you offer, but you also get all the tools that come with the platform. And for me one of the best things about Fiverr is their constant improvement and development of new ideas. This gives me so much confidence in the longevity of Fiverr as it seems every few months there's something new to announce.

So I'm happy paying this percentage, I also pay for Seller Plus on top, and even though I might not need to, occasionally I spend on promoted gigs too. I don't think about these as losses, or my money being taken, I'm just paying for a great platform and service.

[surajkartha]

I don't mind these discussions, but then it leads to unnecessary back and forth, and unnecessary groupism.. posts with animosity.. 🥱 . anyhow, if you ask me, do a split test and stick to what works for you.. i.e. between Fiverr and your own website (maybe built using Wordpress, Shopify etc).. but ya if you are going for the latter option, you may have to do some marketing as well.. plus there are other things you need to setup, like payment gateway, commercial usage licenses for images used on the website, samples etc.. but ya, it's not that difficult.. bottom line.. Fiverr or not, I'd say stick to what works for you.. as for 20%, it is what it is I guess.. 

[olyasr]

Yes, 20% is really a lot, but in fact - they don't take money for nothing. You pay for clients. Here you don't have to pay for marketing, You don't have to make a lot of effort to find clients. In fact, Fiverr provides us with a service to find clients.

It would be great if that percentage were smaller. But we have what we have. We take 80% of the money that wouldn't be there without Fiverr.

[donnovan86]

13 minutes ago, olyasr said:

You pay for clients. Here you don't have to pay for marketing, You don't have to make a lot of effort to find clients. In fact, Fiverr provides us with a service to find clients.

I agree. Aside from marketing, you don't have to pay for file hosting/sharing, customer support in case anything goes wrong, there are no withdrawal fees with PayPal while other freelancing sites have it. So there are benefits. It all depends on you and what you want. 

[uk1000]

Maybe they should decrease the percentage as the gig price goes up. I think that might have been suggested before but it seems a good option.

[olyasr]

18 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I agree. Aside from marketing, you don't have to pay for file hosting/sharing, customer support in case anything goes wrong, there are no withdrawal fees with PayPal while other freelancing sites have it. So there are benefits. It all depends on you and what you want. 

I just read your thoughts and I remembered another very important point - it's safe to work here. Safe for both the buyer and the seller. The money is frozen by Fiverr. If you did the work, you will get your payment. If you are a buyer, you don't have to worry as well - seller will not get the payment until the work is done

[olyasr]

18 minutes ago, uk1000 said:

Maybe they should decrease the percentage as the gig price goes up. I think that might have been suggested before but it seems a good option.

Yes - That would be fair. Paying $2 off $10 is fine. But to pay $200 on a thousand dollars is already more serious.that would be

[donnovan86]

1 hour ago, olyasr said:

Paying $2 off $10 is fine. But to pay $200 on a thousand dollars is already more serious.that would be

It's the same amount, 20%.

Try to advertise online to get those $1000 clients... It will cost you $400 or more just on advertising. And who knows if they are serious and don't try to refund. Fiverr does offer protection and all the tools you need to do your business. You just work, they advertise your services and so on.. Which for me is very important. There are other options, this is not the only one, and that's the beauty of freelancing. Those don't work like this, they take 15% or 10%, but you have to pay for bidding, and who knows if a buyer chooses you. 

[olyasr]

12 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

It's the same amount, 20%.

I mean, it's the same in percentage terms, but it's not psychologically hard for many to give $2, but it's hard to give $200.

But you are absolutely right - for all the services that Fiverr actually provides, any intermediary would charge much more, and the process itself would be more complicated.

Such topics arise periodically on this forum, but everyone still stays on Fiverr, because they understand that it makes life much easier.

 

[newsmike]

4 hours ago, frank_d said:

It is exposing your offering to thousands of buyers in its marketplace and then facilitates the financial transaction, the actual order, all communication and file sharing, invoicing, etc

I find myself amazed how many people think that they could purchase a domain, pay for web design, site hosting, global marketing up to and including Super Bowl, to rank traffic at #125 globally and 98th in the USA, establish agreements with Paypal, Payoneer and every major credit card for every country on the planet, manage an accounting department that sends required tax statements annually, have customer support agents and a nifty forum for less than a damned dollar for every $5 they earn.  People need to understand business and learn how much things actually cost. 

[frank_d]

1 hour ago, olyasr said:

mean, it's the same in percentage terms, but it's not psychologically hard for many to give $2, but it's hard to give $200.

Well this sort of confirms the whole “it’s how you frame it” angle.

It’s not hard to pay $200 to someone who brought you a $1,000 order. You net $800.

Just how you worded that sentence “give $200” should tell you all you need to start thinking about this a bit differently.

 

[cs_evans]

On 12/30/2021 at 12:22 PM, jacoboolsson said:

I don't know if people find it fair or are cool about the platform getting the 20% of the income creators get from their clients. 

Frame it as if you were an employee for a company where you were paid on commission.  The highest commission I ever received in the corporate world was 50%.  Many commissions are in the 10% range, as in you get 10% and the company gets 90%.  

I get that it is hard to see that 20% "disappear", but they are doing a huge portion of the work to create the market in which you get customers.

As far as leveling up and getting a discounted rate, I would love that too, but I can't see any business case for it from the Fiverr standpoint.  They are still doing the same thing to get you clients, and are you really going to work harder at the higher level to get more customers/orders if you got that 10% discount?  My guess is no, so why would they be inclined to offer a discount.