new seller tips How to build credibility on Fiverr, even if you're a new seller with zero reviews

[smashradio]

 

If you want to improve your freelancing career here on Fiverr, you need to build credibility on the platform. It helps prospective buyers identify you as someone to trust. It helps you sell more to the right people. 

But there's a problem with this. To build credibility, you need buyers to order from you, right? This is a catch-22 holding many new sellers back. 

Luckily, there are some ways to build credibility on Fiverr, even if you have just set up your account!

It will still take time, effort, research and energy, but following these steps can make it much less miserable. 

Here's how you establish yourself as a true professional without spending years doing it. 

Disclaimer before we begin: You have to actually be good at something, in order to market yourself as a professional. If you're not, you're nothing but a pretender. Pretenders fail. 

TL;DR: 

• Stick to your prices, and don't negotiate too much.
• Maintain a professional and well-made gig and profile.
• Look the part (no webcam shots at the kitchen table).
• Use the gig gallery to your advantage by showing off your work.
• Provide valuable content to your buyers to demonstrate industry expertise. It could be a guide you've written on the forum or a PDF in your gig gallery that is helpful to the buyer.
• Offer free consultations if it makes sense in your niche. 
• Don't just copy/paste your responses to buyer requests: make each response count. 
• Add your education to your Fiverr profile if it's relevant.
• Act like you mean business. Don't call people "bro" or "my friend". 
• Take courses on Fiverr Learn to build credibility, and gain new skills.
• Say no with confidence if a buyer has unrealistic expectations or if you lack the expertise required to deliver the goods.
• Follow up during the order and ensure the buyer knows you're there for them after the order.

1. Don't be too flexible with your gig pricing

It's tempting to accept any offer you get as a new seller. Negotiating when you have zero reviews can be beneficial. But don't keep doing it! When you have landed a sale or two with happy buyers, it's time to stick to your price! 

If you have any hopes of landing higher-paying clients, allowing too much room for negotiation can hurt your reputation and credibility by telling buyers that you don't know your worth. If you lack confidence in your own abilities, the buyer will probably lack confidence in them as well.

P.S. A five-dollar gig instantly shows that you don't know your worth. If you sell anything for five bucks these days, you're not coming across as a professional. It will only serve to damage your credibility. 

2. Make sure your profile and gigs are well-made

Your gig and profile is like a virtual storefront. If it's ugly, buyers will go elsewhere. 

A professional-looking gig and profile will land more sales. That means no typos, gig thumbnails made by anyone but a designer, messy gig descriptions, etc. 

A well-made gig and profile will make you look more credible. Use Fiverr sellers to help you out in areas you struggle with. 

You also need to look the part. Just because you're working from home doesn't mean you should look like a slob on your profile picture. First impressions do matter! Dress up and hire a professional photographer.

Doing all of this will cost you some money. But if you're not willing to invest in your business, perhaps you should consider a different career. 

3. Showcase your best work

Don't just tell the buyers that you're good at something. Show it. 

Even as a new seller, you have access to the gig gallery. You set it up when you make your gig. You can upload a gig video, photos, graphics and PDFs. 

Use the gallery to show off your best work. If you're a designer, create some stunning examples of your work. If you're a voiceover, upload your best demos. You get the idea. 

Showing prospective buyers your work will help them decide if you're the right seller for the job. Using the gig gallery properly will make you look more credible. 

4. Provide valuable content to educate buyers

Since you can't send buyers away from Fiverr, you should find ways of showing them your industry expertise on the platform. 

Examples:

Write industry-specific guides for buyers on the forum

Let's say your buyer is looking for a logo design but is having trouble deciding on a color. If you respond by sending them a well-written guide (that you wrote) about how to choose the right color for a logo, that immediately shows the buyer that you know your stuff. This is just an example. Be creative!

Offer free consultations

The goal of such a consultation should always be to land the sale by showing the client that you know your stuff. But make the buyer feel like it's about them (because it is). Use every consultation as an oppurtunity to learn more about their business. Knowledge is power and it will help you deliver better services. 

Use gig PDFs 

You can upload case studies from previous clients or work examples in the gig PDFs. Share them with your buyers if they reach out. 

5. Submit high-quality responses to buyer requests 

Using buyer requests can be a pain in the neck. Frankly, I don't recommend using them to any established seller. But as a new seller, you will get access to some buyer requests after you've set up a gig. 

But making an effective response can be difficult. You have to be fast; otherwise, the request might disappear, but you must also nail the response. Beyond having perfect grammar, you should focus on what the buyer is looking for in the first sentence and avoid copy/pasted lists of what you can do.

If the buyer is looking for a WordPress website, they don't need to know that you're a social media marketer. Including irrelevant stuff only tells the buyer that you have copied/pasted your response. Right there, you've lost your credibility. 

Start by stating specifics from their request. That tells the buyer that you've read their request. Continue with your value proposition, i.e. why the buyer should order from you and not someone else. Include relevant skills. 

6. Add relevant education to your profile

You can add your education on Fiverr. It will help build credibility, especially if it's relevant to your Fiverr gigs. It's by no means required, but it will make you stand out. 

7. Act like you mean business

Don't be casual. Don't respond using lots of emojis or call your buyer "bro" or "friend". They are not your brother nor your friend. They are your client. You instantly become more confident and dependable by acting like a professional. 

Your gig is a business. Treat it like one. 

8. Take courses on Fiverr Learn

When you take a course on Fiverr learn, it gets added to your Fiverr profile. Showing you've completed courses relevant to your gigs can help build credibility. The best part about doing this, is that you gain new skills while doing it. 

9. Say no with confidence

If a buyer comes to you with a project you can't deliver, say no. This could be a buyer with unrealistic deadlines, or perhaps you don't have the expertise required to deliver the goods. 

Being honest with your buyer and yourself will save you from trouble like negative reviews/feedback and help build credibility. 

I've said no to jobs before because I didn't think I was a great fit. A week later, the buyer returned with a different project and said they were impressed by my honesty and for setting realistic expectations. That job earned me 2000 bucks, and I still work with the buyer to this day. 

If you're in a situation where you don't have the required skills, refer the buyer to someone else. People remember stuff like that. 

10. Always follow up

You should follow up with the buyer during and after an order. Because it might come across as spam/annoying to message a buyer after an order, do this inside the order delivery message. Make sure they know that they can reach out to you if needed and that you're there for them.

But don't forget: you should never work for free. It shouldn't be free if they need more work done that wasn't included in the original order. It harkens back to the "know your worth" part at the beginning. 

You should also follow up during the order by asking relevant questions, letting the buyer know that you're working on the project, and when they can expect results.

In conclusion

If you're a new seller, there are still ways of building your credibility on Fiverr, creating trust and engaging your buyers, even if you have zero reviews. But it takes time, effort and skill to do so, not to mention, investment on your part. 

How do you work to build trust and credibility on Fiverr? 

Edited June 11, 2022 by smashradio

[sabinespoems]

Great and helpful post, not only for those who are just starting! 

1 hour ago, smashradio said:

How do you work to build trust and credibility on Fiverr?

What I've noticed that also helps is knowing what you're talking about. Like you said @smashradio, it's important then to actually be good at something for this. But it sounds simple and straightforward, yet can be difficult to communicate sometimes! How I try to do it is ask relevant questions that a buyer might not have thought about yet. That way you can share your knowledge about your skills. 

Another important thing is saying no and providing a reason. I don't mean a 'no' regarding declining a job. How I mean it is saying no to what a buyer has in mind, and explain reasons why you think it won't work. It's important to include your views about what would work instead. 

Another thing is to recap everything a buyer has told you. Using phrases like 'if I understand correctly' & 'so to summarize you want....'. That way you can establish trust not only in the sense that you're the right one for the job, but the buyer can trust that you understand what they want. 

These things above makes buyers feel you communicate adequately and that you understand their needs. That in turn helps to build trust and credibility! 

[smashradio]

2 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

knowing what you're talking about....yet can be difficult to communicate sometimes!

Indeed, it can be. That's why I always recommend hiring experts to help you out in the areas you might not excel at yourself. 

3 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

ask relevant questions that a buyer might not have thought about yet. That way you can share your knowledge about your skills. 

Absolutely! 

3 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

Another important thing is saying no and providing a reason. I don't mean a 'no' regarding declining a job. How I mean it is saying no to what a buyer has in mind, and explain reasons why you think it won't work. It's important to include your views about what would work instead. 

This is very true. Excellent advice.

5 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

Another thing is to recap everything a buyer has told you. Using phrases like 'if I understand correctly' & 'so to summarize you want....'. That way you can establish trust not only in the sense that you're the right one for the job, but the buyer can trust that you understand what they want. 

It's always a good idea to recap. I'd say this has more to do with customer support skills than building credibility on the platform, but even so, this is absolutely crucial to avoid misunderstandings. So when the buyers start coming in, this is a great habit to have!

[donnovan86]

Congrats @smashradio, this is the type of content people need to see. We should talk with Frank or a mod so they can pin this for newbies. 

[smashradio]

On 6/11/2022 at 1:51 PM, donnovan86 said:

Congrats @smashradio, this is the type of content people need to see. We should talk with Frank or a mod so they can pin this for newbies. 

Thanks man! Haven't seen Frank for a couple of days, and a couple of posts of mine have been in the abyss for two days - haha. If you see him, feel free to mention it 😄 

[starseorank]

 @smashradioGreat article I have ever seen on forum. It'll be very much impactful for new sellers. Should be pinned on the forum top.

On 6/11/2022 at 10:15 AM, smashradio said:

Offer free consultations if it makes sense in your niche. 

If I offer a free consultations for a "previous" or "new" buyer it legally ok for my reputation? It's allowing the Fiverr TOSs?

[smashradio]

23 hours ago, starseorank said:

@smashradioGreat article I have ever seen on forum. It'll be very much impactful for new sellers. Should be pinned on the forum top.

 

If I offer a free consultations for a "previous" or "new" buyer it legally ok for my reputation? It's allowing the Fiverr TOSs?

You still have to follow the rules on the platform when offering free consulations. That means you can't share contact info or be in contact outside of Fiverr. The "consulation" would have to be done in the chat on Fiverr for that reason. 

One of the services I offer is SEO content. Sometimes, the buyer will want to know things like how many words they should order, based on their existing content and website, competition and so on. So I can help them by taking a look at their website, content and competitors, to give them an idea of what I think will be effective to achieve their goals. 

I'll look closer at what they already have, their competitors, keywords and goals. Then I'll provide my recommendations and explain what I can do for them to achieve those goals. 

All of that is done in chat. It's free, yes, but the end goal is to help the buyer decide on what they should order from me. So it's basically a part of my "sell", and not totally free, since my consultation is basically a sales pitch designed to help the buyer know what would work for them. My interest is always client satisfaction, so my recommendations are always real and I never try to oversell my services. 

[spiritual_lama]

Love it! They are indeed great tips. If you know you are good at what you do, a little bit of patience and resilience will help you get there.

One thing I would add is have a good grip over English. Many a times clients are apprehensive of buyers who are not very fluid in communication.

[bobtush]

Thank you @smashradio for this, I am new and haven't even created by first gig, I really needed to see this.

Edited September 1, 2022 by bobtush