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This Is Why Many New Sellers Fail on Fiverr


smashradio

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After being on Fiverr since 2014, I've seen many new sellers on the forum, complaining about not getting orders, not being able to rank their gig, and not getting impressions and clicks... The list goes on. 

So I wanted to talk to you a bit about why this happens. There are a few fundamental reasons why new sellers will struggle on Fiverr. 

#1 – New sellers offering the same service as everyone else

If you sign in to Fiverr only to make a gig in a category with 100.000 other sellers, you'll most likely fail. Imagine opening up a shop in a shopping center with 100.000 other shops! You're not going to get many customers, especially if nobody knows who you are. 

Solution: Do your research. Offer something unique. Don't be seller number 114.000 offering "WordPress web design" or "Minimalist logo design." Think about what you do best. Specialize. Instead of an "I will design responsive website in WordPress"-gig, how about an "I will design a stellar plumber website"? 

This is just an example. You can't compete against 114.000 other sellers doing the exact same thing. But you have more than one gig slot. Use them, and be more specific. 

#2 – Not being good at what you do

A lot of new sellers have no skills to back up their promises. This is unfortunate. If you just started learning something, you're not a pro. If you worked all your life flipping burgers, you're not a "marketing expert." You're a burger flipper. 

Solution: Be honest about your skills, most importantly to yourself. Only then can you begin to improve, learn and grow into a career as a freelancer. You need the skills before you make the gig. 

I understand that life can be challenging. That you desperately need money to put food on the table. And you have my sympathy. But you can't and won't succeed in business if you're not truly good at what you're selling. It all starts with honesty in front of the mirror. 

#3 – You don't have a plan

Doing anything in business without a plan will most likely lead to failure.

Solution: You need to know why you're doing this, how you're going to do it, and who you'll do it for. 

A man with a plan is a man who can. 

----

There you have it. My top three reasons why new sellers fail. And how you can avoid making them. 

Now go out there, make a plan, be bold and be extraordinary. 

If you're not already there, go learn how to be. Then come back with new and marketable skills you can sell. 

Edited by smashradio
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10 hours ago, smashradio said:

, most importantly to yourself

THIS is so important (though you'll likely have some people ignoring it completely.) Knowing how to use Canva to put two stock images onto a template does NOT make your a designer. Having a microphone does NOT make you a voice actor. I do admire people who TRY to learn new things (I've been wanting to learn how to draw (the very basics) for a long time and just never had the dedication, even though it'd make my life a lot easier... ) but... people need to understand their own talents and limits. 

10 hours ago, smashradio said:

You don't have a plan

On the other hand, (I don't disagree with this in general) I NEVER have a plan. I try new things, hope for the best and they either take off or not (but obviously that's a reckless way of living and not something people should do.) I'm hoping to get better at planning for the future though.

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Every word of this is truth especially #2.

There are daily posts from non-selling sellers mentioning how long they have waited for in order. I never see one that says they have spent months studying new techniques or learning up-to-date practices for whatever they are trying to offer. I've been writing professionally for over 20 years and I still take time every week to learn something. Providing value for buyers is so much more important than the need to make money every single time.

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On 6/25/2022 at 8:45 AM, melanielm said:

Every word of this is truth especially #2.

There are daily posts from non-selling sellers mentioning how long they have waited for in order. I never see one that says they have spent months studying new techniques or learning up-to-date practices for whatever they are trying to offer. I've been writing professionally for over 20 years and I still take time every week to learn something. Providing value for buyers is so much more important than the need to make money every single time.

Indeed it is. I spend 1-2 hours every day trying to learn something new that can help me become even better at what I do. It takes effort and willpower to get good at something, especially good enough to make money from it in the long term. 

On 6/25/2022 at 4:58 AM, katakatica said:

On the other hand, (I don't disagree with this in general) I NEVER have a plan. I try new things, hope for the best and they either take off or not (but obviously that's a reckless way of living and not something people should do.) I'm hoping to get better at planning for the future though.

I don't always have a fleshed out plan for everything I do. But if you think you have a business idea that might work, it does help to sit down and think it through. But being impulsive can be fun, so I get it. I prefer to keep that beast locked up when it comes to work, and release my inner spontaneousness for other, less important projects. 

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19 hours ago, smashradio said:

There you have it. My top three reasons why new sellers fail. And how you can avoid making them. 

I love the list that you have there @smashradio!  I think I started from the bottom up: first with #3, then #2, and then #1:

#3 - Make a Plan. I like how you simplified the plan to focus on the why, how, & who. The "why" can't simply be "to make money." My why includes how I love being able to help my customers achieve their goals and dreams - whether it's launching them into the job market with a strong resume or creating their first ecourse. I also love how I can be at home and more present in the lives of my children. The "how" refers to your skills (your #2) and the "who" refers to your customers (your #3).

#2 - Be Good At A Skill. Yes, we do have to be honest with ourselves! The "skills" I thought I had initially weren't really the skills that my customers were asking for, nor were they my strongest skillset.  I had to be flexible to change my business and adapt when customer feedback told me what skills I should focus on.

#1 - Be Unique. This point is so important! Too many newbie sellers make the mistake of blending in with their competitors. You really do have to be unique, specific, and stand out. As a seller, I don't need to cater to the masses. I only need a handful of clients in my specific niche to do well.

5 hours ago, melanielm said:

Providing value for buyers is so much more important than the need to make money every single time.

This is HUGE! Why do new sellers always think it is about them? All the complaints from new sellers use the word "I" ... "How can I make more money?" and "Why don't I have any orders?"

Very rarely do I see a new seller complain, "How can I provide value to my customer? What do they want? What do they need? How can I listen better to my customers so that I can provide the optimal experience for them?"

Once new sellers start realizing how important it is to provide value to the customer, and can provide value, then they'll start making money.

9 hours ago, katakatica said:

I try new things, hope for the best and they either take off or not

I think experimenting is good and opens the door for fluidity. My business plan that I created when I started Fiverr is so different from the business plan I have right now. Had I stuck with the original plan, I probably wouldn't be making any money. I adapted my gigs and tried out new skills because my customers were asking for it.

I had plans to just do donkey work (data entry and proofreading). I specifically put in the plan that I would not write, because it uses brainpower, and always thought my writing was boring. However, my customers love my writing and it's really the only thing I do on Fiverr (research & summaries, writing ecourses/curricula, etc.).

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On 6/25/2022 at 3:12 PM, vickieito said:

I love the list that you have there @smashradio!  I think I started from the bottom up: first with #3, then #2, and then #1:

#3 - Make a Plan. I like how you simplified the plan to focus on the why, how, & who. The "why" can't simply be "to make money." My why includes how I love being able to help my customers achieve their goals and dreams - whether it's launching them into the job market with a strong resume or creating their first ecourse. I also love how I can be at home and more present in the lives of my children. The "how" refers to your skills (your #2) and the "who" refers to your customers (your #3).

Thanks! 

My why is very similar to yours, but it also contains my own goal: make enough to never worry about bills again. I'm not embarrassed for including myself in my "why", or to set the bar high. It's good motivation. But my number one goal has always been to achieve my own goals doing something that truly helps my clients. It's the value that @melanielm talks about. 

On 6/25/2022 at 3:12 PM, vickieito said:

#2 - Be Good At A Skill. Yes, we do have to be honest with ourselves! The "skills" I thought I had initially weren't really the skills that my customers were asking for, nor were they my strongest skillset.  I had to be flexible to change my business and adapt when customer feedback told me what skills I should focus on.

Being a pro writer isn't a must to start a writing gig. It depends on what you're selling. The idea is to know your limitations and don't try to market yourself as something you're not. Being flexible is crucial. If a shark stops swimming, it dies. 

On 6/25/2022 at 3:12 PM, vickieito said:

#1 - Be Unique. This point is so important! Too many newbie sellers make the mistake of blending in with their competitors. You really do have to be unique, specific, and stand out. As a seller, I don't need to cater to the masses. I only need a handful of clients in my specific niche to do well.

Exactly. My writing gigs cater to people with deeper pockets than my competitors. The reason is that I only want to work with the best. I want them to hold me accountable for every single word I write, and I want them to push me to do better. Working with "difficult" clients (and I'm not talking about unprofessional ignoramuses but buyers with higher demands for quality) keeps me on my toes. Just the way I like it. Finding your niche (or making it) is how to do business. Trying to be generic to reach as many buyers as possible will only have the opposite effect. 

On 6/25/2022 at 3:12 PM, vickieito said:

I think experimenting is good and opens the door for fluidity. My business plan that I created when I started Fiverr is so different from the business plan I have right now. Had I stuck with the original plan, I probably wouldn't be making any money. I adapted my gigs and tried out new skills because my customers were asking for it.

I had plans to just do donkey work (data entry and proofreading). I specifically put in the plan that I would not write, because it uses brainpower, and always thought my writing was boring. However, my customers love my writing and it's really the only thing I do on Fiverr (research & summaries, writing ecourses/curricula, etc.).

Experimenting is not only good, but fun. As long as you're doing it with a plan. But that plan could be "I'm gonna try this for three weeks, gather the data, and see what came of it". I just did a price test where I doubled my rates. Lowered my conversion rate too much so it didn't make financial sense with the projects I got. Back to my normal rates now, after checking the data for a few weeks. Then I added a gig video (even though gig video audio sucks). That doubled my click-through-rate. Now I'm excited to see if it can increase my conversion rate to even higher levels than I had before the price increase test. 

Also, there's nothing wrong with changing your plans and adapting - so long as you have an actual plan. I haven't seen your work, professionally, but based on what I've seen on the forum, you're an awesome writer!

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  • 5 months later...
On 6/25/2022 at 6:45 PM, melanielm said:

There are daily posts from non-selling sellers mentioning how long they have waited for in order. I never see one that says they have spent months studying new techniques or learning up-to-date practices for whatever they are trying to offer

It's not like all sellers are just waiting for order idle by just look on the screen.  You can't expect that. And how they practice or give their efforts to make better themselves from yesterday. when the competition is with your own it's so scary because  if you fail you'll let down yourself. This tech industry is updating daily so everyday is new learning day, every day you have to up-to-date. So don't judge everyone just in a jiffy.

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When I started on fiverr, I also had no orders for a month or so. And I was not just a new seller, but a new freelancer in general. So what I did was creating a portfolio in the meantime because when I did not had a lot of reviews, the buyers asked for work-examples a lot. And because of me building up a portfolio, I was able to show them something. 

Also doing webinars and reading about how to be successfull as a freelancer helped a lot during that time. What nowadays is completely normal for me is something I had to learn once. Maybe it's easier if you're not completely dependent on the money.

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Back in college, there were a few people in my classes who either got hired before they got the degree, or got hired into the most prestigious places out of all of us. There was a common thread among those two types of people; they were spending time doing their own learning outside class and not just doing what the classes taught them.  

There is so much advice already on the forum, that if you started reading it, there would never be time left over to ask for people to bring you advice.  

If I had to boil it down it's going to come down to three things:

- Don't have english mistakes in your gig if it's an english gig.
- Have a gig that does something differently from everyone else, even if it's a minor difference.
- Do that thing well.

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New(er) sellers confuse Fiverr with a regular job sometimes. By this, I mean that they seem to think they deserve work just for signing up - which isn't necessarily the case. Fiverr isn't a platform where everyone gets orders equally (like if you were working for a company and had several teams that handled x projects a week.) Fiverr advertises us (to the buyers), gives us a platform - but (especially in the beginning) that's where their support stops. It's more like a market than a big supermarket where (some) of the profits are divided between the shop assistants. 

 

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Not having a plan is such a good tip! You need to have a plan if you want to succeed at anything, not just Fiverr or freelancing, but literally anything in your life. It's important to also be realistic and have a plan that goes for 6 months to a year, expecting to get a million dollars in one day is not something that will actually happen. I suggest when making a plan define your actual goals and then start making your plan. For example, if you want to have $10,000 a year coming in then you need to figure out how much that would mean a month. So $10k divided by 12 is $833.33 a month, if you sell your services at an average of let's say $25 then you'll need to make 33 orders a month every month. Which goes down to about 8 orders a week. Then the plan becomes, "How can I get 8 orders a week" versus "How can I make $10k a year" 8 orders are definitely doable, that's just pretty much 1 order a day. So all you gotta do is convince one person every day to order from you. The best way to do that is through a good gig page, good marketing on Fiverr and outside Fiverr and then delivering quality work so that one person tells their friends and the next day will be that much easier to get an extra person coming in. Set goals, make a plan and then follow through and you will reach all the things you want. 

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On 2/14/2023 at 4:05 AM, katakatica said:

New(er) sellers confuse Fiverr with a regular job sometimes. By this, I mean that they seem to think they deserve work just for signing up - which isn't necessarily the case. Fiverr isn't a platform where everyone gets orders equally (like if you were working for a company and had several teams that handled x projects a week.) Fiverr advertises us (to the buyers), gives us a platform - but (especially in the beginning) that's where their support stops. It's more like a market than a big supermarket where (some) of the profits are divided between the shop assistants. 

 

@katakaticaYou are very correct. And, if I had to guess, you have been on other platforms and experienced something similar.  eBay for sure and Amazon, and Etsy.  I have seen people discuss these platforms thinking that they get all this money and the seller is owed something.  This is Fiverr's playground.  They provide the TOS - don't follow, bye, bye- no different than any other platform. And, all the other I mention, they offer some kind of additional way to boost/advertise and it cuts into the profits. When I was doing FBA (sending items into Amazon), my price points were lower so all the fees for the product and them shipping the item to buyer and me packing it up, shipping it in was nearly 50% (including labor). My prices reflected this and I still made about 20%.  People need a plan.  A product / service, a proper gig/listing, a SOP (standard operating process) for delivering a positive customer experience and a marketing funnel. For whatever reason, the expectations here seem to be so much higher than other platforms.  Maybe people here how great it is but think it will be a level playing field. A level playing field would actually reduce the overall buyer experience.

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Hello!
I like your topic! It's about a simple but hard (maybe even cruel!) truth.
First of all you need to have a portfolio, something you can show to a potential customer. And it has to be not bad at least. And realization of that fact can be painful and scary (I would be scary and I were).😬
However I think not having a plan it's OK to a certain degree. Maybe I just didn't understand that part of your massage. But you can't consider all the details especially when you come to a new platform(or place). A bit of improvasation is cool. You can adapt to a changing conditions. I think It's really usefull skill in our life!🤗
Anyway, good luck to us newbies! 😎 We need to study hard to some day relax hard😁

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