Deranked gig after a terrible private review, impressions flatlined - Will pausing the gig for a week or two help get ranked again?

[domenikbrenner]

It's been 4 or so months since I received that one fatal, private review. My impressions tanked, I went from thousands of impressions to flatline around 30-ish, on a good day, and never again above. I was promoted 3 times now, but the promotion only lasts under 24 hours, my impressions jump up because of it, but as soon as it ends I am flatlining again. I think I am beyond a general "Help how do I get impressions", because even on the very first day when I started the gig I had more impressions than now... Hence why I call it "deranked". 

Now I don't believe the impressions will go back up naturally again, it's been 4 months. Deliveries, orders, reviews, private nor public ones, changed nothing about my impressions. The plan: Pause the gig until the new year and hope it will reset. 

Does that work? Has anyone done that? 

On the same note: I have current orders, what will happen to them if I pause the gig?

Edited December 24, 2022 by domenikbrenner

[strategist_ceo]

1 hour ago, domenikbrenner said:

I don't believe the impressions will go back up naturally again, it's been 4 months.

You did not receive any bad public reviews... why did you think you received a really bad private one?

I think you were not deranked due to a bad private review. You were affected by a gig rotation, which happened to me as well. I didn't even get any bad reviews, but my average 10k impressions dropped to around 10, despite me making the greatest sale since I began working here on fiverr (in terms of quantity and revenue).

I had a low impression for about ninety days, despite the changes I made. 

Just when I thought I should leave Fiverr, everything seems to be improving again and was on an upward trajectory (it's been 4 months since my recovery). It is now "stable" for me.

I see that you are providing virtual assistance services. Have you considered retaking the Virtual Assistant Skill Test? Your score is just 6.5/10. This may be a reason why the algorithm doesn't like you as much. Also, taking the English language test is recommended.

[domenikbrenner]

2 hours ago, strategist_ceo said:

You did not receive any bad public reviews... why did you think you received a really bad private one?

I think you were not deranked due to a bad private review. You were affected by a gig rotation, which happened to me as well. I didn't even get any bad reviews, but my average 10k impressions dropped to around 10, despite me making the greatest sale since I began working here on fiverr (in terms of quantity and revenue).

I had a low impression for about ninety days, despite the changes I made. 

Just when I thought I should leave Fiverr, everything seems to be improving again and was on an upward trajectory (it's been 4 months since my recovery). It is now "stable" for me.

I see that you are providing virtual assistance services. Have you considered retaking the Virtual Assistant Skill Test? Your score is just 6.5/10. This may be a reason why the algorithm doesn't like you as much. Also, taking the English language test is recommended.

I don't even remember I took the Virtual Assistant Skill Test. Thanks, maybe will improve there, but I really doubt that's the issue. 

But why do I think it was not just random? 

Well, check these threads out: 

 

Feel free to read up on that.


Anyway. Please focus on the question at hand if pausing it will help reset my gig. It's been far over 3 months for me and I need to do other things than wait it out.

 

 

 

 

[vickieito]

3 hours ago, strategist_ceo said:

You did not receive any bad public reviews... why did you think you received a really bad private one?

Because the OP left a 3-star public review and the buyer was livid and announced that he would leave a really bad private review in retaliation (which he did).  Customer Support was not helpful at all because the buyer originally left a 5-star public review. They only told the OP that this negative private review wouldn't affect him (incorrect information).

38 minutes ago, domenikbrenner said:

Please focus on the question at hand if pausing it will help reset my gig.

Pausing the gig will take it off the market. You can still complete your current orders if you do that (you just won't be able to receive new orders). Once you put it back on the market, you can monitor your gig to see what kind of traction it'll get. I'm not sure if this will help you but you can try.

Edited December 24, 2022 by vickieito

[domenikbrenner]

36 minutes ago, vickieito said:

 

Pausing the gig will take it off the market. You can still complete your current orders if you do that (you just won't be able to receive new orders). Once you put it back on the market, you can monitor your gig to see what kind of traction it'll get. I'm not sure if this will help you but you can try.

I am aware, that's actually why I do it. I hope that if I take it off the market it will start to behave normally again. But not sure if this'll work and I would like to hear some experiences. I am not even sure how long I need to take it off the market for it to be effective, if it works in the first place. I also have to juggle repeat customers, who graced me by coming back for more work so I currently have work without new clients, which is good because it didn't look like those clients would come back at all. Got lucky there..

Edited December 24, 2022 by domenikbrenner

[strategist_ceo]

1 hour ago, domenikbrenner said:

I am aware, that's actually why I do it. I hope that if I take it off the market it will start to behave normally again. But not sure if this'll work and I would like to hear some experiences. I am not even sure how long I need to take it off the market for it to be effective, if it works in the first place. I also have to juggle repeat customers, who graced me by coming back for more work so I currently have work without new clients, which is good because it didn't look like those clients would come back at all.

I believe that any negativity imposed by a bad review can be negated by positive ones. The solution may be to make the gig active, deliver good work, and get positive reviews.

If I were you, I would activate the gig and update it slightly so that it will get recrawled and potentially get a short boost.

Edited December 24, 2022 by strategist_ceo

[vickieito]

4 hours ago, strategist_ceo said:

Just when I thought I should leave Fiverr, everything seems to be improving again and was on an upward trajectory (it's been 4 months since my recovery). It is now "stable" for me.

How long was this for you, @strategist_ceo? 

7 minutes ago, strategist_ceo said:

I believe that any negativity imposed by a bad review can be negated by positive ones. The solution may be to make the gig active, deliver good work, and get positive reviews.

I agree that this is the best option. I don't see how pausing a gig will help. The only way a gig can improve is if there is new and ongoing data that shows your seller performance and quality is high.

1 hour ago, domenikbrenner said:

I also have to juggle repeat customers, who graced me by coming back for more work so I currently have work without new clients

@domenikbrenner - it does seem like you have a steady stream of orders (even though it less than what you are used to). Focus on the customers you have right now and delivering the best quality with each order. It might take time but it can be done.

 @strategist_ceo was able to pull himself out of the slump and I'm rooting for you to do the same!

[miiila]

3 hours ago, domenikbrenner said:

I also have to juggle repeat customers, who graced me by coming back for more work so I currently have work

If you pause your profile or Gigs, customers won't be able to accept custom offers, at least it's like that for me since months, not sure if by design or bug. However, I've had customers tell me that it does work via app. It can be a bit bothersome if you need to unpause your profile or Gigs again for a maybe longer time, so that a customer can accept the offer, especially if in different time zones, and it also may be inconvenient for your "experiment", so thought I'd leave that info here. Not all people use the app, though, so asking them to accept their custom offer via app might not work with all (I'd not urge them, of course, but those who use the app anyway, most probably won't mind, and some who didn't use it before, might even find it useful enough, if they try, to actually be thankful for the "tip", so I don't think it hurts to ask).

Generally, I have the impression, though, that for most people, pausing profile or Gigs leads to a lull of several days or weeks, before it goes back to "like before", so I'm not sure if it will benefit you in any way, but you can try, of course. It's not long until the new year now, in any case. If you'll get orders from new people again, you still won't know if it's because your bad private feedback "dropped off" by then anyway, or if it was a Gig rotation thing, or because of your pausing the Gig, but, well, getting orders again will be more important.

If nothing helps, maybe think about a new similar Gig but with an edge that makes it different enough from the current one to stand on its own without being a not permissible copy? Perhaps researching and incorporating new trends, or something that you didn't offer your customers before, but actually could. 

Good luck!

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by miiila

[miiila]

3 hours ago, domenikbrenner said:

I also have to juggle repeat customers, who graced me by coming back for more work so I currently have work without new clients, which is good because it didn't look like those clients would come back at all. Got lucky there.

That's probably not luck, though, but because they like working with you, don't sell yourself short to yourself 🙂 and take it as a motivation to keep these repeat customers and gain new ones like them, and put a big part of your efforts there, focus on them, like Vickie suggested.

[strategist_ceo]

2 hours ago, vickieito said:

7 hours ago, strategist_ceo said:

Just when I thought I should leave Fiverr, everything seems to be improving again and was on an upward trajectory (it's been 4 months since my recovery). It is now "stable" for me.

How long was this for you, @strategist_ceo? 

It was over 90 days. In my opinion, this period was true gig rotation (imo) because any description updates or new orders that came in one after another by a regular customer did not increase my impression count at all. My promoted gig feature was removed and the 17-18 gigs was bringing in around 100-200 impressions per week (never hit 300 per week). For that 3 months, I earned less than $500 combined.

I did not have any arguments with clients, and everything was going smoothly. In fact, the two months before that, I had seen a drastic increase in revenue. I thought to myself "finally!".

Suddenly, the promoted feature came back... my impression count went over 1,000++, and then 2,000++ on the second day. It continued to increase to over 15,000++ impressions per week* without me making a single sale or updating my gigs for over a month. Now I am doing better than before, like much much better. My gig descriptions unchanged, my price went up etc.

Edited December 24, 2022 by strategist_ceo

[strategist_ceo]

19 minutes ago, miiila said:

don't sell yourself short

This is the number one rule. 

I recommend that you reactivate the translation gig; I think it has great potential for converting and stimulating your account's recovery.

I think you are going through a true gig rotation like I did.

Edited December 24, 2022 by strategist_ceo

[domenikbrenner]

On 12/24/2022 at 8:38 AM, strategist_ceo said:

This is the number one rule. 

I recommend that you reactivate the translation gig; I think it has great potential for converting and stimulating your account's recovery.

I think you are going through a true gig rotation like I did.

I am still in the "gig rotation" then. I dunno man. And now all my clients projects are done and I have 0 work and I only had one new client in the last 2 months, which was a one off project anyway.

Think my Fiverr career is over now.

[nika_3dartist]

On 7/15/2023 at 7:09 PM, domenikbrenner said:

I am still in the "gig rotation" then. I dunno man. And now all my clients projects are done and I have 0 work and I only had one new client in the last 2 months, which was a one off project anyway.

Think my Fiverr career is over now.

What truly helped me in the past was having returning clients, as they kept my profile active and generated traffic. I only received one very negative review (1 star) from a V.I.D client who essentially did that out of spite. I joined Fiverr around January 2020, my first order arrived 4 months later. I have completed something like 4 or 5 orders in total until 2021, when a couple of clients I already knew decided to come back for more.

It may take time and it's not always easy, but I would suggest to not give up just yet. You never know how things will go; one day you may receive a new order from someone who purchased from you in the past, or a new customer who decides to 'hire' you for all their future projects.

Sometimes people leave 'eh' reviews without giving you any explanation too. Not long ago someone gave me a 3.5 review with a very positive comment, but evidently they were not fully satisfied and I will never know what went wrong with the project I completed for them. It happens, we can't always please everyone even if we work hard and do our best. I understand you've been in this loop for quite some time now, but don't lose hope.

[abdheshkjha]

You need to focus on deliver more works that meets your buyers satisfaction. So, they leave good reviews and as you start getting few good reviews and ratings, your impressional will start increasing again.

[domenikbrenner]

On 7/19/2023 at 9:51 PM, nika_3dartist said:

What truly helped me in the past was having returning clients, as they kept my profile active and generated traffic. I only received one very negative review (1 star) from a V.I.D client who essentially did that out of spite. I joined Fiverr around January 2020, my first order arrived 4 months later. I have completed something like 4 or 5 orders in total until 2021, when a couple of clients I already knew decided to come back for more.

It may take time and it's not always easy, but I would suggest to not give up just yet. You never know how things will go; one day you may receive a new order from someone who purchased from you in the past, or a new customer who decides to 'hire' you for all their future projects.

Sometimes people leave 'eh' reviews without giving you any explanation too. Not long ago someone gave me a 3.5 review with a very positive comment, but evidently they were not fully satisfied and I will never know what went wrong with the project I completed for them. It happens, we can't always please everyone even if we work hard and do our best. I understand you've been in this loop for quite some time now, but don't lose hope.

Not what happened to me. My profile was dead for 10 months or so. I could regularly deliver with my returning regulars, but my impressions didn't improve at all and I was still of the search pages. 
Now is the first time in ever I get up to 200 impressions a day, and then I have a nightmare customer now who is 100% going to either get me a cancellation or bad review 

 

[domenikbrenner]

14 hours ago, abdheshkjha said:

You need to focus on deliver more works that meets your buyers satisfaction. So, they leave good reviews and as you start getting few good reviews and ratings, your impressional will start increasing again.

Didn't happen for me. I regularly got 5 star reviews and delivered work, but my impressions never ever went up again.