Fiverr should finally abandon $5 gigs

[breals]

@newsmike It looks like that in the space of 24 hours, Fiverr has trashed a huge amount of $5 gigs in one region of the world already.

Some may consider your post as fate 🙂

If you could post next weeks lottery numbers, I am more than happy to split the winnings 🙂

[newsmike]

20 minutes ago, kendal1747 said:

Are you asking them to abandon their very beginning, their very being, their namesake?

Absolutely, especially when it hinders their growth. Target used to be called "Goodfellow's Dry Goods  Co." and Amazon was originally called "Relentless."  

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/503464/15-companies-changed-their-names

I've even offered a solution that allows them to keep the name and save face. They can initiate the $5 per month fee per gig to sell which keeps a lot of the riff raff out, like a cover charge at a club. Plus they can then rebrand as "Fiverr...start your business for just $5."  Brilliant if I do say so myself.

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by newsmike

[miiila]

Incidentally, I was walking by a "Euro Shop" today, which had stealthily raised prices last year by adding a small ".20" to all their "€1" signs. It seems they decided on a bolder approach for 2023, as all I could see today were big bright red "€2" signs. Can't really fault them, considering the more than tripled gas and electricity bills here, in addition to the general crazy inflation. Many shops also reduced opening hours this year to cope with gas and electricity prices, while opening hours had been increasing for decades...

Imagine Fiverr reduced "opening hours", the "Stay online ../. (don't want my post hidden ;))" threads would be gone, too! Well, okay, they'd probably be replaced by "Stay online 20/6" threads. 😉 

[danno1950]

1 hour ago, newsmike said:

Absolutely, especially when it hinders their growth. Target used to be called "Goodfellow's Dry Goods  Co." and Amazon was originally called "Relentless."  

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/503464/15-companies-changed-their-names

I've even offered a solution that allows them to keep the name and save face. They can initiate the $5 per month fee per gig to sell which keeps a lot of the riff raff out, like a cover charge at a club. Plus they can then rebrand as "Fiverr...start your business for just $5."  Brilliant if I do say so myself.

This is absolutely brilliant, Mike! Fiverr can eliminate the trap they set for themselves when they named their site by giving up on the concept altogether, which I've been in favor of for a long time. It's time for a name change.

As an alternative - I think the $5 fee would be a great way to save face and still rebrand.

[moonstaredits]

3 hours ago, newsmike said:

They can initiate the $5 per month fee per gig to sell which keeps a lot of the riff raff out, like a cover charge at a club.

Maybe 5$ is nothing in your country on a monthly basis, but in my country (specially to get them in my PayPal account, because the exchange rate is higher for PayPal in my country's currency) it's A LOT to have a gig that only gets the occasional sale. My gig doesn't have an exploding amount of orders not because of my performance, but because the niche I choose to work in is not the kind that gets a lot of orders itself (top sellers in my niche aren't even close to make the numbers of the sellers of SEO, writing, social media posts, etc). I would rather pay 30-40$ for a year subscription, if I don't do any significant amount throughout the year maybe I would not pay the next year, but I can't guarantee that I would make more than 5$ each month to cover the hypothetical fee.

Maybe instead of that, Fiverr should be starting to get rid of those gigs with fake advertising (you know, the ones who sell voice acting but offer TTS), gigs with no sales ever or in a year period, those with copyrighted content (I'm surprised to see how lenient Fiverr is with people using KFC logo and the face of Mr. Beast or Elon Musk), etc. Another big purge is needed. That would be the real way to clean their image and reputation. After that, yes, some other changes can be made and you guys have excellent ideas, but first things first.

Edited January 3, 2023 by moonstaredits

[moonstaredits]

On 1/2/2023 at 11:58 AM, markp said:

I don't think any platform  would ask for verification for

A credit card and an ID is not that big of a deal, in some marketplaces you can't buy unless you use a credit card. Using the buyer's real name instead of an username also gives me more trust they're legit. They DEFINITELY need to do something about buyers. Sellers don't even come close to how horrible and fraudulent a lot of buyers are.

On 1/2/2023 at 11:58 AM, markp said:

He will do it on a 5$ gig and if he doesn't get his money back,  just ask for endless revisions or leave negative feedback.

I know, but not even the milestone gigs (which start at 100$) are free from this tactic, I heard it from sellers here on the forum who delivered tiresome, expensive orders only to be surprised with a cancellation at the end. Some buyers benefit a lot from Fiverr's system and retaliate in ways they shouldn't be able to (they can leave a negative private review after you as a seller give them a bad rating, or they can use the good old one "I'm not satisfied with what I got so I'm going to cancel and the ToS now support my shitty behavior"). The most entitled buyer I had is the one who payed the most for my gig, so here I go again with my point, the amount of money they're willing to spend is not the issue. Entitlement and rudeness should not be forgiven by Fiverr, not even in buyers. Communications should always be kept professional and mature. This buyer I mentioned was childish and pushy, and very rude. Sellers deserve to be aware of how buyers perform (Seller Plus has this option, but I would like all sellers did).

Edited January 3, 2023 by moonstaredits

[newsmike]

10 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

Maybe 5$ is nothing in your country on a monthly basis, but in my country (specially to get them in my PayPal account, because the exchange rate is higher for PayPal in my country's currency) it's A LOT to have a gig that only gets the occasional sale. My gig doesn't have an exploding amount of orders not because of my performance, but because the niche I choose to work in is not the kind that gets a lot of orders itself (top sellers in my niche aren't even close to make the numbers of the sellers of SEO, writing, social media posts, etc). I would rather pay 30-40$ for a year subscription, if I don't do any significant amount throughout the year maybe I would not pay the next year, but I can't guarantee that I would make more than 5$ each month to cover the hypothetical fee.

Maybe instead of that, Fiverr should be starting to get rid of those gigs with fake advertising (you know, the ones who sell voice acting but offer TTS), gigs with no sales ever or in a year period, those with copyrighted content (I'm surprised to see how lenient Fiverr is with people using KFC logo and the face of Mr. Beast or Elon Musk), etc. Another big purge is needed. That would be the real way to clean their image and reputation. After that, yes, some other changes can be made and you guys have excellent ideas, but first things first.

All good ideas. A subscription might be the way to go. Anything that prevents people from signing up and throwing up 7 gigs which do nothing. Some repeating charge direct from bank, or credit card would stop the goof offs and people who are selling junk on a lark in case they get a sale. Then yes, there needs to be random fraud protection and vetting. Perhaps AI could start performing more of this. I would have no objection to random checks on talent. If Fiverr asked me to prove myself once a year with a 10 minute task, or pay a much higher price to stay active... Lots of good ideas. Just glad they are moving on some.

[newsmike]

30 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

I know, but not even the milestone gigs (which start at 100$) are free from this tactic, I heard it from sellers here on the forum who delivered extenuating, expensive orders only to be surprised with a cancellation.

You know, we are not employees. We are more like stores that rent space in the mall. Fiverr should let sellers dictate terms within reason. For example, I would absolutely have an "all sales are final" policy, and Fiverr should sit in the background, exposing my gig in the algo, handle the transactions, and respect that. CS should not have the power to issue a refund if you are not an employee.  Considering that we are not employees, Fiverr makes a lot of decisions about our business model that they really should not be allowed to. Of course, common sense and legalities need to apply.

Edited January 4, 2023 by newsmike

[moonstaredits]

3 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Anything that prevents people from signing up and throwing up 7 gigs which do nothing.

In translation websites, you can't sign up anymore in certain language combinations (English-Spanish, for example) because the marketplace is saturated. They should implement that too in some categories. It's no secret some categories have more untalented people because the tasks they do are way too easy and people think they can get a piece of the cake with no qualification. If you have a certain amount of sellers making x quantity of sales and only x quantity of buyers, you don't need more sellers to sign up and saturate the market even more. Another idea...

[moonstaredits]

4 minutes ago, newsmike said:

You know, we are not employees. We are more like stores that rent space in the mall. Fiverr should let sellers dictate terms within reason. For example, I would absolutely have an "all sales are final" policy, and Fiverr should sit in the background, exposing my gig in the algo, and handling the transactions, and respect that. CS should not have the power to issue a refund if you are not an employee.  Considering that we are not employees, Fiverr makes a lot of decisions about our business model that they really should not be allowed to. Of course, common sense and legalities need to apply.

I agree with that. I know people who freelance off and online (not in Fiverr) who do exactly that. We should have more freedom and not those neverending disputes of reviews, revisions and cancelations.

[newsmike]

3 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

If you have a certain amount of sellers making x quantity of sales and only x quantity of buyers, you don't need more sellers to sign up and saturate the market even more.

This is not just unfair to talented sellers, but especially unfair to talented sellers in those countries that are more economically pressured than others. For example, if you are a truly talented writer and actually fluent in English and are selling from that "certain location", imagine how hard it is to get sales when you are surrounded by crap and spam, even though you are capable.  

[moonstaredits]

3 minutes ago, newsmike said:

This is not just unfair to talented sellers, but especially unfair to talented sellers in those countries that are more economically pressured than others. For example, if you are a truly talented writer and actually fluent in English and are selling from that "certain location", imagine how hard it is to get sales when you are surrounded by crap and spam, even though you are capable.  

Definitely. Or at least they should be able to take a test before being eligible for making a gig in the category... Something that weeds out the untalented, unqualified people occupying a place in the search results they should not be occupying (the algorithm kinda does this, but as we know is not enough).

[newsmike]

15 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

Something that weeds out the untalented, unqualified people occupying a place in the search results they should not be occupying (the algorithm kinda does this, but as we know is not enough).

Imagine this. The AI randomly writes to users and asks questions. Simple ones, and then compares the grammar to the level of proficiency claimed in the profile. Also looks for certain red flags like request for off site communication and a bunch more. Respond after 24 hours, dinged. Illiterate, dinged. Marks the gig for human review and maybe eventually the boot if deserved. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by newsmike

[maitasun]

18 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

Or at least they should be able to take a test before being eligible for making a gig in the category...

Tests don't work. Fiverr tried this already and it was a fiasco. Tests were flawed and outdated, among other things.

Even today's English test that Fiverr requires you to pass if you want to activate a writing or proofreading gig is flawed. And, worse, the answers can be found on the internet. So, here on the forum you get to see sellers, whose English is as bad as it can be, offering English content writing and English proofing gigs because they got to pass Fiverr's test.

That's the ugly truth, and I guess we'll have to live with it.

Edited January 4, 2023 by maitasun

[newsmike]

5 minutes ago, maitasun said:

Tests don't work. Fiverr tried this already and it was a fiasco. Tests were flawed and outdated, among other things.

Even today's English test that Fiverr requires you to pass if you want to activate a writing or proofreading read is flawed. And, worse, the answers can be found on the internet. So, here on the forum you get to see sellers, whose English is as bad as it can be, offering English content writing and English proofing gigs because they got to pass Fiverr's test.

That's the ugly truth, and I guess we'll have to live with it.

What about my sneaky AI chat bot idea posted just above?  AI writes seller and says, "Hi, are you available to write an article"?  Response is "I am too very happy to make writings for you."  AI checks fluency level... sees "English - Fluent." Gig halted and under review.

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by newsmike

[maitasun]

1 minute ago, newsmike said:

What about my sneaky AI chat bot idea posted just above?

I sometimes think Fiverr is implementing it already. From time to time, I get weird messages that really make no sense from "buyers" who don't seem to be ordering from anyone, but suddenly start messaging. And after you say the magic words like "that violates Fiverr's ToS", go dormant... As if those messages were a bait.

[newsmike]

Just now, maitasun said:

I sometimes think Fiverr is implementing it already. From time to time, I get weird messages that really make no sense from "buyers" who don't seem to be ordering from anyone, but suddenly start messaging. And after you say the magic words like "that violates Fiverr's ToS", go dormant... As if those messages were a bait.

Me too and that's great. Look at how sophisticated Google and Grammarly are. Could be leveraged brilliantly. 

[moonstaredits]

17 minutes ago, maitasun said:

Tests don't work. Fiverr tried this already and it was a fiasco. Tests were flawed and outdated, among other things.

I think it's because of the approach they gave to them. @newsmikeidea with the AI seems a lot better.

[moonstaredits]

9 minutes ago, maitasun said:

And after you say the magic words like "that violates Fiverr's ToS", go dormant... As if those messages were a bait

I had a few ones like that. One of them asked me if I could edit erotic content. Another one ask me to proofread a thesis. As soon as I said the "magic words", they just went "oh ok thanks" and I didn't even block them, they just didn't write again. It would be great to have AI undercover buyers to see the seller's behavior in the most primal state 😂

[newsmike]

2 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

It would be great to have AI undercover buyers to see the seller's behavior in the most primal state 😂

Yeah, it's not like we are trying to uncover professor Moriarty plotting the death of Sherlock Holmes here. AI could root out the most egregious "sellers" without breaking a sweat. @mjensen415   

[danno1950]

3 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Yeah, it's not like we are trying to uncover professor Moriarty plotting the death of Sherlock Holmes here. AI could root out the most egregious "sellers" without breaking a sweat. @mjensen415 

I agree, and I think it fits in with Fiverr's apparent preference for having something done automatically, rather than through human effort. With the number of sellers that appear to be in question, I think if I were on the Fiverr staff, I'd welcome an automated resolution instead of having to allocate manual resources to the task.

Edited January 4, 2023 by danno1950

[maitasun]

11 minutes ago, moonstaredits said:

As soon as I said the "magic words", they just went "oh ok thanks"

I don't even get a sad little thank you. They just go MIA. 😂 That's not fair. 😭

One of the last ones to message me wrote "... If you want to call me I can be reached by phone at xxxx." Needless to say never again to hear from her after my reply: "As for calling you, all communications must be kept within Fiverr. Doing otherwise is a violation of Fiverr's TOS."

Edited January 4, 2023 by maitasun

[donnovan86]

1 hour ago, newsmike said:

What about my sneaky AI chat bot idea posted just above?  AI writes seller and says, "Hi, are you available to write an article"?  Response is "I am too very happy to make writings for you."  AI checks fluency level... sees "English - Fluent." Gig halted and under review.

Well what if you are replying quickly from your phone and deal with autocorrect? 😄

[maitasun]

5 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Well what if you are replying quickly from your phone and deal with autocorrect? 😄

 

[newsmike]

28 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Well what if you are replying quickly from your phone and deal with autocorrect? 😄

Who's fault is that?