How to determine if you should accept a new Buyer who has NO prior reviews??!! What's your method?

[omnilegentangel]

Hi everyone: So I'm a new seller and I've had three potential clients and a bunch of scammers. One of the buyers was a professional writer, one was an artist and one was a newbie writer. I have a Beta/Sensitivity Reading gig so I'm wondering if I felt more comfortable with the writers? IDK. Anyway, none of these clients had a review because they're all new.

My first client was pretty on point: she explained what she wanted, got me her docs (and even when she had a problem uploading it), she waited patiently for Fiverr support to help. THANK GOODNESS!

The second potential buyer was an artist who requested things that were not a part of my "typical" gig package (although I could do it within the THEME of my package). I normally review writings and he wanted me to review "some writing" but with a bunch of photos. He kept going back and forth and after I would answer him, he would go invisible. Then, he would show up again, kind of asking for the same types of stuff but at a much, much lower rate. Because I didn't know we could just say "no" to people we felt we wouldn't work well with, I continued to try to please this potential buyer. He eventually requested a custom order (for more than 60% lower than what he should have paid) but since I cut out a bunch of actions, I put it down to the lowest amount I could take but kept the delivery days the same. After writing up the extensive custom order, he didn't respond. LOL. I even went back to him and asked him if he had received the order and if he had additional questions. But..... he ghosted me! lol. A few days later, I went to remove him from my message inbox and saw that he had a rating. He had selected another person to do his gig. And she was charging WAY less than me. Like, pennies. She gave him a 5 star review and he gave her a 4 star review. I don't know if she was adequate or if he was trying to get what he wanted done at a cheap rate and found out that he couldn't get it done. Sad. Anyway, I archived his messages and blocked him.

The third buyer was also a writer. Again, I think I just vibe a little better with writers because I am a writer and I kind of understand a little more of what they're probably looking for (if that makes sense). Anyway, this time, I found myself asking a few more questions about his project and what inspired him to do the project. I felt that by askinig some questions, I might get to see a little bit more of what type of buyer I was dealing with in order to make a better decision as to if the buyer and I could really work together in a positive way. I'm happy to say that he seems real cool and he hired me and I accepted his project: a win-win.

So after all of this, here's my question: What do you look for in a buyer when they have no reviews and you're trying to gauge if they would be a good "fit" for working with you? Thanks in advance for any responses! 

[bigspaniard]

Hello, 

 

I think this is a phenomenal question. Personally, I have never looked at the experience level or seasoning of the buyer on the platform until I joined the Fiverr Seller Plus program (which I highly recommend) and saw this information displayed very front and center. 

My reasoning is I frequently encounter Buyers on the Fiverr platform who are professional entrepreneurs/business people but have always worked face to face and therefore find their foray into Fiverr a little intimidating. With the newer Buyers I find communicating what is NOT included in the Gig is more important than what is (and is already communicated).

I feel if I can go above and beyond for a new Fiverr Buyer, truly provide a WOW experience, then this Buyer will shop more on Fiverr and it is a way to pay it forward for other sellers 🙂

I a a Fiverr TRS and Fiverr Pro Seller in the writing category, so 100% relate to your "vibe for writers" description. 🙂

I hope the above helps and your question has definitely caused me to think a lot about this. 

 Warm regards, 

 

Carlos (BigSpaniard)

[omnilegentangel]

Hi Carlos: First, I love your name (Big Spaniard); too cool!  LOL. I was really just "thinking out loud" how more seasoned sellers handled this issue because I'm Usually better at "reading" a person by their expressions vs their  "oral" conversations vs the written words. Especially because the written word can be so misinterpreted, you know? For now, I guess I have to just go on what I believe they're conveying and if I think I'm not reading the signals right (or even if I think I am), I'll just have to reiterate what I believe they mean back to them. I have been a Fiverr Buyer before so I've been on both sides of the fence now and I will say that to me, it can be scary no matter what side you're on!  And, thanks for the tip about the Fiverr Seller Plus program. I don't really know what it is but I'm sure I can find out more on the platform since I'm not looking for this to just be a "hobby" but a true business. Knowledge is Power!! Well, thanks again for your words and your info. How can I follow you? I haven't figured out how to do that yet!! lol

[bigspaniard]

@omnilegentangel, you are the best! 🙂

Thank you for the kind words. Funny enough, when I started on Fiverr as a Seller it was more out of curiosity and I never thought it would turn into such an important part of my life (as a Buyer and a Seller). I chose the name "BigSpaniard" because I didn't want people to know who I was or tie me to the Fiverr profile based on stereotypes I felt my colleagues had about Fiverr Sellers (all unfounded of course),...so I picked the only "other name" I had which was my gamer handle/name (back when I had time for that lol) which nobody knew. Once I began treating my Fiverr profile/business as a business instead of a hobby I grew in the ranks, and began worrying that this "BigSpaniard" name was too unprofessional and would torpedo true success for me on the platform. 

I wonder now, even if Fiverr allowed me to change my seller name if I would, the "BigSpaniard" is sort of memorable and never negatively impacted my sales or growth,...#TeamFiverr .

I just followed you here (recently learned how to do this myself) and inboxed you so it is easier for you to follow back. I am excited to learn more about your Gigs and share in your success.

 

Warm regards, 

 

Carlos (BigSpaniard)

 

[omnilegentangel]

Awesome, and THANK YOU! I'll go to my inbox name to follow you! And you are your name; embrace it for YOU! 

[vickieito]

@omnilegentangel & @bigspaniard, can I just say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread? 😍 I loved both of your comments! (following both of you now!)

@omnilegentangel, I think you answered your own question on how to handle these clients. It's very easy to tell what kind of buyer you are dealing with if you get the chance to chat with them in the inbox. Occasionally, I'll get the buyer that just orders straight from my gig without sending a message through the inbox chats first. Either way, doing what you are doing, by asking questions and "getting a feel" for your buyer is the way to go.

If I get an order from a buyer who hasn't contacted me first, I'll usually send them a quick response welcome message and "research" them while they are filling out the order requirements. I'll look to see if they have reviews, if they just joined Fiverr, as well as the Seller Insights that come with Seller Plus. Once the order requirements are filled out, I'll review them and have the buyer confirm the details and answer any questions they may have about the project. I also add gig extras to the order if they requested anything outside of the scope of the order. By then, I'll have a good idea on what type of buyer they are and how well we will work together. If they are brand new, I have a "Top 10 Tips for Getting Started on Fiverr" guide that I can give them to answer most of the questions they'll have. I agree with @bigspaniard that we need to give these new-to-Fiverr buyers an awesome experience so that they keep using the platform and feel good about Fiverr.

11 hours ago, omnilegentangel said:

I'm Usually better at "reading" a person by their expressions vs their  "oral" conversations vs the written words.

Lol. I'm just the opposite. I'm completely clueless about "reading" peoples' intentions. That's why I do so well on Fiverr because everything depends on the written word. I also have a bit of social anxiety and may have to get up and step away from the conversation for a bit (which doesn't work well in real life, but on Fiverr, the buyers totally think I've got it all together)! 😅

10 hours ago, bigspaniard said:

I chose the name "BigSpaniard" because I didn't want people to know who I was or tie me to the Fiverr profile based on stereotypes I felt my colleagues had about Fiverr Sellers (all unfounded of course)

@bigspaniard, you were smart ... I lacked creativity and picked my own name (first and last name). That makes me very easy to find off platform because unfortunately, that's how I'm set up online. Now I get a lot of spam on social media and LinkedIn from clients wanting to contact me off platform. I have to ignore their messages on social media and then send them a message through Fiverr's platform saying that I would love to connect with them, but can only do so on Fiverr's platform. It's a pain.

I think there still is a stigma around "Fiverr" because all my family and friends are wondering why I'm working on a cheap $5 freelancing site, even though they know I've replaced my day job and now work full-time on Fiverr.

11 hours ago, omnilegentangel said:

 thanks for the tip about the Fiverr Seller Plus program. 

I'm sure @bigspaniard can tell you more about this program, but basically you need to get on a waiting list to use the program. It took me 5 months to qualify and once you do, you pay $29/mo to have the following benefits:

• A Success Manager (who you can email at any time, plus have monthly Zoom meetings with)
• An advanced analytics dashboard
• Coupons to send to your customer
• A free month's access to CreativeLive's 2,000 courses (I decided to learn all of Adobe's products...those courses are easily $100 each)
• Quicker payments (I often choose to get paid as soon as my orders close)
• "Negative keywords" ... where you can add words to your gig that will filter out unwanted buyers. I use the negative words such as "essay writing," "thesis," "Amazon review," and "erotica" for my writing and beta reading gigs.

There are also other benefits and advantages to the Seller Plus program that I haven't mentioned and new benefits are added often.

Sorry, long post! I try to make the most out of my five-post-a-day limit. 😊I'm looking forward to reading more post from both of you!

[omnilegentangel]

11 hours ago, vickieito said:

@omnilegentangel & @bigspaniard, can I just say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread? 😍 I loved both of your comments! (following both of you now!)

@omnilegentangel, I think you answered your own question on how to handle these clients. It's very easy to tell what kind of buyer you are dealing with if you get the chance to chat with them in the inbox. Occasionally, I'll get the buyer that just orders straight from my gig without sending a message through the inbox chats first. Either way, doing what you are doing, by asking questions and "getting a feel" for your buyer is the way to go.

If I get an order from a buyer who hasn't contacted me first, I'll usually send them a quick response welcome message and "research" them while they are filling out the order requirements. I'll look to see if they have reviews, if they just joined Fiverr, as well as the Seller Insights that come with Seller Plus. Once the order requirements are filled out, I'll review them and have the buyer confirm the details and answer any questions they may have about the project. I also add gig extras to the order if they requested anything outside of the scope of the order. By then, I'll have a good idea on what type of buyer they are and how well we will work together. If they are brand new, I have a "Top 10 Tips for Getting Started on Fiverr" guide that I can give them to answer most of the questions they'll have. I agree with @bigspaniard that we need to give these new-to-Fiverr buyers an awesome experience so that they keep using the platform and feel good about Fiverr.

Lol. I'm just the opposite. I'm completely clueless about "reading" peoples' intentions. That's why I do so well on Fiverr because everything depends on the written word. I also have a bit of social anxiety and may have to get up and step away from the conversation for a bit (which doesn't work well in real life, but on Fiverr, the buyers totally think I've got it all together)! 😅

@bigspaniard, you were smart ... I lacked creativity and picked my own name (first and last name). That makes me very easy to find off platform because unfortunately, that's how I'm set up online. Now I get a lot of spam on social media and LinkedIn from clients wanting to contact me off platform. I have to ignore their messages on social media and then send them a message through Fiverr's platform saying that I would love to connect with them, but can only do so on Fiverr's platform. It's a pain.

I think there still is a stigma around "Fiverr" because all my family and friends are wondering why I'm working on a cheap $5 freelancing site, even though they know I've replaced my day job and now work full-time on Fiverr.

I'm sure @bigspaniard can tell you more about this program, but basically you need to get on a waiting list to use the program. It took me 5 months to qualify and once you do, you pay $29/mo to have the following benefits:

• A Success Manager (who you can email at any time, plus have monthly Zoom meetings with)
• An advanced analytics dashboard
• Coupons to send to your customer
• A free month's access to CreativeLive's 2,000 courses (I decided to learn all of Adobe's products...those courses are easily $100 each)
• Quicker payments (I often choose to get paid as soon as my orders close)
• "Negative keywords" ... where you can add words to your gig that will filter out unwanted buyers. I use the negative words such as "essay writing," "thesis," "Amazon review," and "erotica" for my writing and beta reading gigs.

There are also other benefits and advantages to the Seller Plus program that I haven't mentioned and new benefits are added often.

Sorry, long post! I try to make the most out of my five-post-a-day limit. 😊I'm looking forward to reading more post from both of you!

Hi Vickieito:

Well, I enjoy reading both of YOUR posts and now, I finally figured out how to follow BOTH of you (you're the only two people I'm following right now; I don't like to just follow people without a purpose, you know?). Plus, I've been reading your messages since I started. 

Ok, so just to follow up on something bigspaniard said: I guess I'm not understanding when you would know that a Fiverr client has found you outside of the platform? Besides them stating that they saw you on Fiverr or sending you a message to your Fiverr Inbox, how would you know this info? I'm asking because I did promote myself recently on my Facebook and Twitter pages but I'm also in the process of setting up a website to try to obtain my own clients as well. 

Thanks for any help! Sorry about all the questions. 

Angela

[bigspaniard]

@omnilegentangel, 

I use a software call Pixelme.me to track all of the links I use off of Fiverr to promote my Fiverr Gig. I just assume the other traffic/sales are native to Fiverr. 

[donnovan86]

On 7/29/2022 at 11:27 PM, vickieito said:

A free month's access to CreativeLive's 2,000 courses (I decided to learn all of Adobe's products...those courses are easily $100 each)

To be honest I never tried it.. How does it compare to Skillshare or Udemy? 

[vickieito]

Hi @donnovan86, 

I wrote more about CreativeLive here: https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/285035-🧠learning-for-free-on-creativelive/#comment-1801332

Compared to Skillshare and Udemy, it is similar, but since CreativeLive is now Fiverr-owned, there are some differences.

• Certificates - Udemy is the only one offering certificates (and that's only on select, paid courses)
• On Udemy, you pay by the course. On Skillshare you have membership access to all courses. CreativeLive has both options.
• Skillshare does offer free courses, but not as much as CreativeLive, which has 24/7 free courses available
• Both Skillshare (30k+) and Udemy (183k+) offer more topics and more courses than CreativeLive (2k), which is focused mostly on creative talent.
• Anyone can upload courses on Skillshare and Udemy ...CreativeLive instructors are picked and vetted by CreativeLive.
• Fiverr Learn courses are also starting to show up on CreativeLive.

Personally, I love CreativeLive because I am hearing impaired and the transcripts that come with the courses are very interactive. Tthe words are highlighted on the transcript as the course is playing and I can "read ahead" or click on the words that I want to focus on to jump to different spots in the lesson. If you are viewing in transcript mode, the video player is hanging right next to the transcript so you can see both the video and the transcript ... which works so much better than subtitling. I read faster than I listen, so I often jump ahead to catch the video up to where I'm reading.

[omnilegentangel]

Oh wow, this is GREAT info guys! Thanks so much for sharing. 

[artcee_vibes]

First Buyer Convo. Is it a scam? [HELP] First Buyer Possible Scammer?

Monday(September 12th) a buyer wanted a portrait of 12 people(music artists) for an album cover and the deadline was September 17th. They started off with sending me a reference of another artist for the colors they wanted to use. Then sent me the 7 of the music artists at this point I didn't know this was for an album cover. They proceeded to say there were more on the 13th and only sent 2 more on the 15th.

The photos of these "music artists" seem screenshotted off of their instagrams or something so I asked what the portrait was for, a fanart or will it be used commercially. And they proceeded to respond with, "All artists consented and this is for an album cover." 😭 So I raised an eyebrow because I didn't specifically asked that. I moved on and repeated back everything to make sure we were in agreement of what the buyer wanted and they confirmed...ON THE 17TH! I told them in order to meet their deadline I would have to charge a one day fee and they said, "That's fine but there are a few changes." I asked what the changes were and NO response until the 18th(today). And they sent 2 more "music artists". The photos again looked like screenshots of their circle profile pics on instagram so it was hard to make out and I asked if I could get a better pic while also confirming now its 12 people and they said,"12 in total. I wish I could send you a better photo but that's all the artists sent me. Please do your best. It doesn't have to be 100% perfect."

Now I feel like this went from sus to a red flag. I asked about the new deadline because they didn't u the fact we missed the last one. So now the deadline is the 20th. I haven't sent an offer yet because it feels off. I've done commissions before but not on Fiverr. I did also get my first order on the 17th from another buyer but I haven't started on that yet.  I realllyyy don't want to end up delivering all this art then getting scammed by this first buyer though. Any thoughts? 👀

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, artcee_vibes said:

The photos again looked like screenshots of their circle profile pics on instagram so it was hard to make out and I asked if I could get a better pic while also confirming now its 12 people and they said,"12 in total. I wish I could send you a better photo but that's all the artists sent me. 

I think that anyone who is legit enough to have permission from the artists would also have the Hi-res digital files provided from the respective publicity firms or management. Fishy. Beware.  

[charlesnzelu]

Exactly what @newsmike Everything about that convo seemed fishy. Better to be safe than sorry. 

[artcee_vibes]

Thank you to those who gave advice!! I felt the same way and I decided to decline the buyer to be on the safe side. Appreciate you all!!!