Is it a good strategy to start cheap

[belukha]

Hi everyone. I am new to the platform. I actually had another account for a few months but I had to change the username. 

Anyway, I never made any sales yet.

I am an artist and I offer illustration gigs. At first I had started with the prices which was deserved in my opinion. After a few months, I got no clients. Then I thought if it's better to start cheap then as I make sales I can increase the price later. 

Do you people think it is a good strategy? What advice you can give to me about being recognised in the platform, and at least make first sale? 

[vickiespencer]

When I started on Fiverr I sold for $5 what I sell for $80 now. 

[anisurratan]

5 hours ago, belukha said:

it's better to start cheap then as I make sales I can increase the price later.

You are right, you may follow this strategy but make sure to provide quality full service as client happy 

[sunysuny998]

No offend but nowadays cheap pricing doesn't attract quality/genuine buyer at all. They think the service will be worst or the seller isn't professional or not experienced enough. What should be the tips for these situations.

p.s. most of the time I get spam massages but not genuine buyer. is it for cheap pricing? 

Edited December 2, 2022 by sunysuny998

[belukha]

Thanks everyone for answering.

16 hours ago, vickiespencer said:

When I started on Fiverr I sold for $5 what I sell for $80 now. 

I am also planning to start from $5 to have more clients but I doubt it's working for me.

11 hours ago, sunysuny998 said:

No offend but nowadays cheap pricing doesn't attract quality/genuine buyer at all. They think the service will be worst or the seller isn't professional or not experienced enough. What should be the tips for these situations.

p.s. most of the time I get spam massages but not genuine buyer. is it for cheap pricing? 

I somehow agree with @sunysuny998 on this, I add my illustrations to show the quality of my work but I don't know if they are convincing people that I am not doing $5 worth work. (I also get too many spammer especially about translation gigs).

But I don't know how else I would attract them since my social media accounts aren't popular enough to get clients from.

 

Waiting for more opinions on this,

Everyone have a great day.

Edited December 2, 2022 by belukha

[vickiespencer]

1 hour ago, belukha said:

but I don't know if they are convincing people that I am not doing $5 worth work. 

Did you draw every illustration from scratch. Your images look like you have created them with some sort of app. There have been buyers complaining on the Forum about sellers that say their art is original and then the buyer finds the images in video games and such. 

[belukha]

2 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

Did you draw every illustration from scratch. Your images look like you have created them with some sort of app. There have been buyers complaining on the Forum about sellers that say their art is original and then the buyer finds the images in video games and such. 

Oh, is it normal that I am flattered by your comment hahaha 

I do draw from scratch, maybe I should add a process video to make it clear. Thank you 

[vickiespencer]

18 minutes ago, belukha said:

Oh, is it normal that I am flattered by your comment hahaha 

If you did indeed draw them you should be flattered. But why the white line around most of them? 

 

[sunboatrecords]

I have mixed feelings about this.

When you got 0 social proof, the only way to make your offering attractive is by having lower prices than the competition.

An excellent portfolio is a prerequisite to have half a chance and appear qualified.

Now, having lower prices is one thing and, slaving away another.

$5 gig prices often attract horrible buyers that are looking to take advantage of someone and have no regard for you as a person or professional. On the other hand, you will also attract good people that have no money.

This is as objective as I can be on the subject.

My advice to you is: know your worth and offer lower prices than established sellers. Don't go for the $5 dollar price tag. What are you going to do with 4 dollars? Buy a coffee?

Getting orders does not guarantee you a positive outcome. As a matter of fact, if your first client is horrific and leaves you a negative review, they will tank your profile. Your average rating will be at their mercy.

Last but not least, I do not know the extent of your experience. Can you handle bad buyers? Do you think that you have what it takes? They are a challenge even for established sellers with hundreds or thousands of orders.

My 2 cents.

And good luck!

Edited December 2, 2022 by sunboatrecords

[belukha]

4 hours ago, vickiespencer said:

If you did indeed draw them you should be flattered. But why the white line around most of them? 

 

🤔 Great question, it just a thing I do lately so the illustration could stand out from the background. I still have to practice color theory 😅

[belukha]

3 hours ago, sunboatrecords said:

I have mixed feelings about this.

When you got 0 social proof, the only way to make your offering attractive is by having lower prices than the competition.

An excellent portfolio is a prerequisite to have half a chance and appear qualified.

Now, having lower prices is one thing and, slaving away another.

$5 gig prices often attract horrible buyers that are looking to take advantage of someone and have no regard for you as a person or professional. On the other hand, you will also attract good people that have no money.

This is as objective as I can be on the subject.

My advice to you is: know your worth and offer lower prices than established sellers. Don't go for the $5 dollar price tag. What are you going to do with 4 dollars? Buy a coffee?

Getting orders does not guarantee you a positive outcome. As a matter of fact, if your first client is horrific and leaves you a negative review, they will tank your profile. Your average rating will be at their mercy.

Last but not least, I do not know the extent of your experience. Can you handle bad buyers? Do you think that you have what it takes? They are a challenge even for established sellers with hundreds or thousands of orders.

My 2 cents.

And good luck!

You're right, having many clients might not always be that great. And I don't think I can handle bad buyers 🥺

Thanks for the great advice, I appreciate it. I hope I can succeed this way, 

Have a lovely day!

[vickiespencer]

5 minutes ago, belukha said:

🤔 Great question, it just a thing I do lately so the illustration could stand out from the background. I

My hubby is a Master Photographer. He uses a background light to keep the subject of his portraits stand out from the background. 

[belukha]

40 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

My hubby is a Master Photographer. He uses a background light to keep the subject of his portraits stand out from the background. 

I usually have problem with the background and colours 😭 thank you very much!

[bokiiii]

Hi Belukha, and welcome to Fiverr. I can tell you, based on my experience, everything that you've done until now is AMAZING. Creating account on fiverr forum to explore how to be better on this platform is very smart move. Also, selling your art for cheaper price while you are new on this site is good start, after some time you can earn more if your art is good enough. One more thing, try finding best keywords for your gigs so they can be ranked higher on list and give it some time, I am sure you will be amazing seller, all the best! 🙂

[belukha]

8 hours ago, bokiiii said:

Hi Belukha, and welcome to Fiverr. I can tell you, based on my experience, everything that you've done until now is AMAZING. Creating account on fiverr forum to explore how to be better on this platform is very smart move. Also, selling your art for cheaper price while you are new on this site is good start, after some time you can earn more if your art is good enough. One more thing, try finding best keywords for your gigs so they can be ranked higher on list and give it some time, I am sure you will be amazing seller, all the best! 🙂

Omg thank you for the kind words 🙃 Keywords, I need to go through them once more, thanks for the advice. I re-edited my gigs now, I still have cheap pices but not 5 dollars any more. I realized only scam bots are interested in 5-dollar gigs hahhaha

Thanks again for your kind words, have a nice one!

[farsatai]

On 12/2/2022 at 6:16 PM, vickiespencer said:

Did you draw every illustration from scratch. Your images look like you have created them with some sort of app. There have been buyers complaining on the Forum about sellers that say their art is original and then the buyer finds the images in video games and such. 

Can you please tell how to check someone's fiverr profile(not forum/community), I assumed it could be checked right from clicking the profile here but it isn't(idk). Thanks!

[farsatai]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:07 PM, sunboatrecords said:

I have mixed feelings about this.

When you got 0 social proof, the only way to make your offering attractive is by having lower prices than the competition.

An excellent portfolio is a prerequisite to have half a chance and appear qualified.

Now, having lower prices is one thing and, slaving away another.

$5 gig prices often attract horrible buyers that are looking to take advantage of someone and have no regard for you as a person or professional. On the other hand, you will also attract good people that have no money.

This is as objective as I can be on the subject.

My advice to you is: know your worth and offer lower prices than established sellers. Don't go for the $5 dollar price tag. What are you going to do with 4 dollars? Buy a coffee?

Getting orders does not guarantee you a positive outcome. As a matter of fact, if your first client is horrific and leaves you a negative review, they will tank your profile. Your average rating will be at their mercy.

Last but not least, I do not know the extent of your experience. Can you handle bad buyers? Do you think that you have what it takes? They are a challenge even for established sellers with hundreds or thousands of orders.

My 2 cents.

And good luck!

This!!!!!! 

I had one of my gig that literally get direct message/orders without being online much and was beginning to rock more orders until a new client suddenly bought it for my lowest offered price(which was initially against my principle, but I just changed it then so I could reach the level 1 milestones faster!) 

She gave a veeery bad review(delivery was super! trust me) which 'tanked'😆 the gig and affected the other gigs(i had to delete one recently), since there are not much orders initially my profile literally went beneath the rank of profiles lol.

Far low fees will most probably attract bad eggs of buyers. 

Imo, try and set the price a little lower than the average in your category.

[vickiespencer]

2 hours ago, farsatai said:

Can you please tell how to check someone's fiverr profile

It is simple. Go to the poster's profile page and copy their user name. Then go to the main Fiverr platform and paste their name behind the "https://www.fiverr.com/" in the URL and you will be taken to their profile. 

[farsatai]

14 hours ago, vickiespencer said:

It is simple. Go to the poster's profile page and copy their user name. Then go to the main Fiverr platform and paste their name behind the "https://www.fiverr.com/" in the URL and you will be taken to their profile. 

Oh wow great! I do search usernames from the app-(will switch to buyer's mode) I thought there is a direct way it is done from here. Thanks for that! 🙌

[agent99digital]

Never start cheap. If you do great work, people will notice and will want to hire you. Find a sweet spot between cheap and expensive, but post as much of your top  portfolio examples as you can. Address any possible concerns in the FAQ and the gig description. Post a video of yourself doing illustrations or drawing or whatever you do. The lack of gigs most of the time is due to poor presentation. Make sure people know that you can communicate easily and well in English. 

[levelup_graphic]

If you work at a low price in new condition, there is a possibility of getting an order quickly.

 

Thanks Regard

levelup_graphic

[belukha]

15 hours ago, agent99digital said:

Find a sweet spot between cheap and expensive, but post as much of your top  portfolio examples as you can.

Hi, thanks for the advice. I think that's a very useful one. I tried to do that. 

About posting, do you mean to post on gig portfolio or on the forum? I actually tried to add portfolio to one of my gigs but the size was too much more than the limit 😅

[moonstaredits]

 

On 12/2/2022 at 1:20 PM, belukha said:

I do draw from scratch, maybe I should add a process video to make it clear. Thank you 

This is a very good idea, it will give your gig a better performance if you have a video. May be even better if you show your face on it. Illustration is filled with a lot of scammers who steal others' works, or use weird tricks, so it will be a nice touch to set yourself apart to show your face (a scammer never would!). 

Which leads me to the second point: 5$ for great illustrations that took you some time to make and improve is WAY too cheap and could be misleading to the quality of your work, or could make potential buyers think you're a scammer (5$ are still 5$ and you wouldn't want to lose them if you were a buyer). Search the service you offer on buyer mode and see your competition's prices, maybe calculate the average price at which your competition are selling their gigs and work with that price in mind (maybe offer half of that average price? It could be competitive but definitely not ridiculously cheap). A subterranean low price is not a novelty anymore as most people want to "set themselves apart" by doing that... Not knowing the average new seller is also doing it. I did it too and I am very regretful of the kind of customers I had until I got a proper reputation on my gig. Also don't expect to offer lower prices forever, when you get a more stable reputation with good reviews, orders, and maybe even a level upgrade, consider tweaking the prices again to reflect that you're a more serious, professional seller.

[belukha]

40 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

May be even better if you show your face on it. Illustration is filled with a lot of scammers who steal others' works, or use weird tricks, so it will be a nice touch to set yourself apart to show your face (a scammer never would!). 

That's a great point actually. (Not socially-anxious friendly though 😅) I was trying to improve my video editing skills for this, now I will consider showing my face in videos then. Thanks for the great advice.

42 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

Also don't expect to offer lower prices forever, when you get a more stable reputation with good reviews, orders, and maybe even a level upgrade, consider tweaking the prices again to reflect that you're a more serious, professional seller.

That's the way I plan to do in future. I only need a little starter boost, still working on it with portfolio, video, cover photo edits etc. I also need to search the market which I haven't pay attention enough yet. Another good point! 

Thanks again, have a lovely day.

[moonstaredits]

1 hour ago, belukha said:

Thanks again, have a lovely day.

My pleasure, have a great day too!