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Buyers not purchasing Commercial/Full Broadcast rights!


taramurray

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Hi all!

Is anyone in the voiceover community finding this an issue lately? I have so many buyers lately simply ignoring the requirement for adding rights to their orders and then opting to cancel when I politely remind them. It's getting incredibly frustrating as seller ratings are affected by order cancellations and as a result I'm definitely noticing a drop off in the amount orders placed for a couple of days after.

Surely there has to be something in place to protect sellers from this. I see it as the equivalent of going into a shop, going up to the checkout with something priced at $50 and just slapping a $20 bill down and hoping the seller doesn't notice!

I've highlighted it on my gig page and in the order requirements about what constitutes the need for these rights. But time and time again it's the same issue every few orders! I had someone place an order and they wanted to use it as an advertisement, wanted background music included plus audio syncing... and only the word count was paid for. I definitely don't want to just up my price to include the rights, but (and excuse me for asking if it's not allowed) can I include a note which says a cancellation will not be permitted should they choose to ignore the requirements? 

I'm so sorry for the rant. I'm just at a loss of what to do!

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There're a few threads on this topic in the Music and Audio category. (I've requested this thread be moved there, too.)

1 hour ago, taramurray said:

It's getting incredibly frustrating as seller ratings are affected by order cancellations and as a result I'm definitely noticing a drop off in the amount orders placed for a couple of days after.

Have you reached out to Fiverr Customer Support after these cancelations? That the Buyer was trying to get more work that what's written in your gig? 

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1 hour ago, taramurray said:

I'm so sorry for the rant. I'm just at a loss of what to do!

Tara, I checked your gig/profile, and because you are a TRS, you have much more ability to solve this. As a TRS, you are grossly undercharging at $10 for 100 words. The whole "I won't pay for usage rights" problem is at its worst with the $5 and $10 buyer level. I would suggest immediately going to the $25-$40 range for the same amount of words. As you charge more the quality and seriousness of your buyers improves dramatically. At the higher price point, the buyers are much more likely to be in the habit of purchasing rights, and won't balk nearly as much. Plus you end up working less for the same or more money. Better to do 1 $100 order than 10 at $10 any day. 

The other option is to add the commercial rights in as part of the base order, so charge $40-$50 with rights included, but this is messier, and you will have to negotiate more with people. I would suggest the first option of simply raising prices (of course when you do there's always that 3-4 days without an order just to make you think you made a mistake) and I believe you will see a difference. Then as business develops, keep pushing towards the $100 price point. The algorithm really likes that.

Good luck.

 

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4 hours ago, taramurray said:

Hi all!

Is anyone in the voiceover community finding this an issue lately? I have so many buyers lately simply ignoring the requirement for adding rights to their orders and then opting to cancel when I politely remind them. It's getting incredibly frustrating as seller ratings are affected by order cancellations and as a result I'm definitely noticing a drop off in the amount orders placed for a couple of days after.

Surely there has to be something in place to protect sellers from this. I see it as the equivalent of going into a shop, going up to the checkout with something priced at $50 and just slapping a $20 bill down and hoping the seller doesn't notice!

I've highlighted it on my gig page and in the order requirements about what constitutes the need for these rights. But time and time again it's the same issue every few orders! I had someone place an order and they wanted to use it as an advertisement, wanted background music included plus audio syncing... and only the word count was paid for. I definitely don't want to just up my price to include the rights, but (and excuse me for asking if it's not allowed) can I include a note which says a cancellation will not be permitted should they choose to ignore the requirements? 

I'm so sorry for the rant. I'm just at a loss of what to do!

I've had this issue before. I increased my rate from 10 to 20 (base rate) and the problem disappeared. It's been several years since I experienced this. 

I fully agree with @newsmike's assessment. However, I did increase my rate even more as a test, and it didn't work well for me due to new competition. My main gig used to be my voice-over gig, but after I increased my rates, my translation gig became my best seller. I recommend trying different price points, watching your click-through and conversion rate closely to ensure that it doesn't kill your business. But stepping from 10 to 20 or 30 bucks is something I would do right away, to get rid of the bad buyers. 

 

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5 hours ago, newsmike said:

Tara, I checked your gig/profile, and because you are a TRS, you have much more ability to solve this. As a TRS, you are grossly undercharging at $10 for 100 words. The whole "I won't pay for usage rights" problem is at its worst with the $5 and $10 buyer level. I would suggest immediately going to the $25-$40 range for the same amount of words. As you charge more the quality and seriousness of your buyers improves dramatically. At the higher price point, the buyers are much more likely to be in the habit of purchasing rights, and won't balk nearly as much. Plus you end up working less for the same or more money. Better to do 1 $100 order than 10 at $10 any day. 

The other option is to add the commercial rights in as part of the base order, so charge $40-$50 with rights included, but this is messier, and you will have to negotiate more with people. I would suggest the first option of simply raising prices (of course when you do there's always that 3-4 days without an order just to make you think you made a mistake) and I believe you will see a difference. Then as business develops, keep pushing towards the $100 price point. The algorithm really likes that.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the advice! Much appreciated. Upped my price point to $20 as a base for the moment so I'll see how that goes before I do too much of a jump at once. I tried that before and panicked when the aforementioned 3-4 days of silence happened!  

2 hours ago, smashradio said:

I've had this issue before. I increased my rate from 10 to 20 (base rate) and the problem disappeared. It's been several years since I experienced this. 

I fully agree with @newsmike's assessment. However, I did increase my rate even more as a test, and it didn't work well for me due to new competition. My main gig used to be my voice-over gig, but after I increased my rates, my translation gig became my best seller. I recommend trying different price points, watching your click-through and conversion rate closely to ensure that it doesn't kill your business. But stepping from 10 to 20 or 30 bucks is something I would do right away, to get rid of the bad buyers. 

 

Great to know you did the same and the problem disappeared. Hopefully the same will happen for me. Thank you!

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5 hours ago, imagination7413 said:

There're a few threads on this topic in the Music and Audio category. (I've requested this thread be moved there, too.)

Have you reached out to Fiverr Customer Support after these cancelations? That the Buyer was trying to get more work that what's written in your gig? 

I actually didn't try it before, I assumed nothing could be done as a cancellation was a cancellation. Especially because it was happening quite a few times, it seemed a bit tedious to repeatedly be raising the issue with customer support! 

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2 hours ago, taramurray said:

I actually didn't try it before, I assumed nothing could be done as a cancellation was a cancellation. Especially because it was happening quite a few times, it seemed a bit tedious to repeatedly be raising the issue with customer support! 

I have read a LOT of threads on the topic of cancellations, and it really depends on the cancelation reason. https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/360010452537-Cancellations Buyers trying to take advantage of you generally gets more leeway in stats. 

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