Profile feedback will be much appreciated

[sabinespoems]

This month is my two year anniversary of my Fiverr freelance journey. Hooray I say! However, my celebration period is marked by a sales drought (queue dramatic music). For the first time, I'm experiencing no sales for the last 2 weeks, not counting my beginner period.

Of course, this is far from ideal but now is the chance to critically look at my profile and make some changes. But here comes the reason for posting this........I think I'm a bit too close in order to clearly see what could potentially be wrong/could use an overhaul. So I'm asking you, the lovely insightful folks of this forum, to give me some feedback 🧐

Don't vilify me just yet for asking this! 

I'm a regular on the forum so I've read (and forwarded) all the tips, tricks, and must-do's when it comes to this issue. I have my own ideas and thoughts on what I can/should change. And it goes without saying I'll do more research too. So asking all of you isn't to be lazy or have you 'do the work for me', I'm just genuinely curious to know about other perspectives 🕵️‍♀️

I know 'a lot' is going on now with various discussions, so this might not be in demand right now. But I figured why not and it might be useful for others in the future too!

So yes don't hold back, I'm ready and won't be offended that's a promise. 

 

[uk1000]

One small thing is that in the gig in the premium package description it says "I will write a total of 64 lines (can be one or several smaller poems)." but the "number of lines" field defaults to 68 in that package.

[words_to_wow]

Hey Sabine. I think it's great that you are reaching out for legit help after helping yourself first 🙂. I looked at your profile and I only see a few things you could do. 

First, it might be good to add a picture of yourself so buyers can see who they are working with. Poetry is personal so perhaps it would help if your picture is, too.

Second, you could create more gigs; still poetry, though, if you want. However, make a little more specific, such as "poetry for children" or "love poems." If you have more gigs, that should increase your visibility (most times).

And third... girl, raise your prices. You have some amazing poems! I would charge more but that's me. 

I hope some of this was helpful 🙂

[sujanaprodesign]

Congratulations

[sabinespoems]

30 minutes ago, uk1000 said:

One small thing is that in the gig in the premium package description it says "I will write a total of 64 lines (can be one or several smaller poems)." but the "number of lines" field defaults to 68 in that package.

I made some changes a while back and missed that, I'm really glad you noticed! 

29 minutes ago, words_to_wow said:

First, it might be good to add a picture of yourself so buyers can see who they are working with. Poetry is personal so perhaps it would help if your picture is, too.

I definitely understand your point and I actually agree to a certain extent! It's just my personal preference to remain anonymous and not have my face out there on the web. It might hurt my sales indeed, but I have to stay true to my soul and what feels right 😅

35 minutes ago, words_to_wow said:

Second, you could create more gigs; still poetry, though, if you want. However, make a little more specific, such as "poetry for children" or "love poems." If you have more gigs, that should increase your visibility (most times).

And third... girl, raise your prices. You have some amazing poems! I would charge more but that's me. 

Your second point is really on point. I've actually contemplated so much about creating more gigs, but I always ended up with the thought that my main gig captures it all. I also remember reading (ages ago so I cannot share a source) that every gig needs to be different. And I always thought 'well it's all poetry!' so I kept being stuck there. I didn't think of creating a gig specifically for poetry for children though, so that's a really great suggestion!

Regarding your last point, thank you so much for your kindness 😇 I find it so difficult to determine what a fair price is. I love writing poetry so it doesn't cost too much effort or time (depending on the project). Yet it still costs effort of course and takes time away from doing other things. I suppose I just find it hard to price myself haha. With this sales slump, I was actually wondering if they were too high and thought about lowering them with $5! 🙈 In your opinion, what would be a good price for my packages? 

[words_to_wow]

34 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

It's just my personal preference to remain anonymous and not have my face out there on the web. It might hurt my sales indeed, but I have to stay true to my soul and what feels right 😅

I absolutely understand. I felt that way at first, actually, then I said, "Oh, well!" But I don't necessarily think not showing your face is hurting your sales. Some people may not care and the picture you have suits your work. 

37 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

And I always thought 'well it's all poetry!' so I kept being stuck there.

I know what you mean. A lot of writers have a website content gig, an about us/me gig, and an article/blog gig. Essentially, these are all the same--writing content online--but they find different terminology to describe them. So, I understand your point. But you'd be surprised how one keyword in a gig brings someone right to your profile :). 

45 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

In your opinion, what would be a good price for my packages? 

Oh, that's a hard one to answer. Let's just say, your premium package with 64 lines needs to be a three-digit price. Sixty-four lines is a lot of work. I know you say that you love writing poetry so much it doesn't feel like work, but, wow. Plus, it's a premium package. It should be a little pricey. 

[words_to_wow]

59 minutes ago, sujanaprodesign said:

Congratulations

Ohhh!! You mean because it's Sabine's two anniversary on Fiverr. Got it ☺️! I'm not confused anymore. Lol

[sabinespoems]

12 hours ago, words_to_wow said:

I know what you mean. A lot of writers have a website content gig, an about us/me gig, and an article/blog gig. Essentially, these are all the same--writing content online--but they find different terminology to describe them. So, I understand your point. But you'd be surprised how one keyword in a gig brings someone right to your profile 🙂

You're completely right! Because I kept being stuck and my main gig was doing well the thought of expanding services moved to the back of my head. I'm grateful you've pointed it out and put it back on my radar 😊 

12 hours ago, words_to_wow said:

Sixty-four lines is a lot of work. I know you say that you love writing poetry so much it doesn't feel like work, but, wow. Plus, it's a premium package. It should be a little pricey. 

That's very true, it's indeed quite a lot of work. I think I'll just increase it and see what happens. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!

[manuelmarino]

Congratulations, Sabine, for your anniversary 🙂 I give you a tip, not for the GIG, but for the Forum profile. I understand you don't want to change the picture, but maybe you could add a couple of info lines in the Forum "about me" section? I think the Forum profile is important as well 🙂

[sabinespoems]

1 hour ago, manuelmarino said:

Congratulations, Sabine, for your anniversary 🙂 I give you a tip, not for the GIG, but for the Forum profile. I understand you don't want to change the picture, but maybe you could add a couple of info lines in the Forum "about me" section? I think the Forum profile is important as well 🙂

Thank you! I'm curious as to why you believe the forum profile is important though? It's not connected to your Fiverr seller account. So if perhaps your tip is based on people finding me here and going to my profile, I just want to let you know it doesn't really work like that. Most people on this forum are sellers so the likelihood of getting sales from the forum is very low (if any chance at all).

Of course, you're free to customize your forum profile and provide details as much as you want! I just wanted to share my thoughts as to why I believe it's futile to do so 🙂 

[catwriter]

17 hours ago, sabinespoems said:

And I always thought 'well it's all poetry!' so I kept being stuck there

Oh, no, it's perfectly possible to make more specific gigs. For example, it's totally fine to have one gig for a minimalistic logo, another one for a vintage logo, third for a feminine logo, fourth for a mascot logo, and so on. It's all logo design, but targeting very different businesses. And, as @words_to_wowsaid, different keywords might really help, and attract buyers who are looking for a specialist (you wouldn't expect Charles Bukowski to write poetry for children even though many of his poems are wonderful, right? But if someone offers poetry that delights the little ones, and you want a lovely gift for your niece's birthday, well...).

[vickiespencer]

17 hours ago, sabinespoems said:

And I always thought 'well it's all poetry!' so I kept being stuck there

I am a proofreader and copy editor, and I have multiple gigs. I offer my services for children's books, business content, letters, websites, Christmas letters, articles and blogs, short stories and novellas, and product descriptions. I am thinking of adding one for resumes and CVCs. So you can broaden your "net". I would search to see what type of services your competitors are offering. 

[sabinespoems]

1 hour ago, catwriter said:

Oh, no, it's perfectly possible to make more specific gigs.

1 hour ago, vickiespencer said:

So you can broaden your "net". I would search to see what type of services your competitors are offering. 

Thank you both for the confirmation! As I said before, I always just got stuck thinking of expansion options and since it wasn't really 'necessary' since I was receiving orders still, I simply kept coasting. But now I'll definitely look into it and will most likely break my main gig up into specific categories.  It might be a bit foolish of me to only realize now how I really should be creating more gigs, but better late than never 😅

And thanks to the lovely @words_to_wow, I'm already setting up my children's poetry gig! 

 

[vickieito]

Hi @sabinespoems! I'm not sure if I have much to add since you've already received a lot of good feedback.

I don't think a profile picture is necessary in your case. I really like your logo profile picture design and think you've branded yourself perfectly with this. Just make sure this design transfers over to all of your gig thumbnails that you'll have.

I also agree that you can expand your services with more gigs. It might help to give more focus to your customers who expect you to create poems out of thin air with little to go off of (which, by the way, you are great at doing)! You might even offer a consulting fee for those who need a little more guidance/help. I think you are doing a lot of that (and it shouldn't be for free).

You can definitely raise your prices (or lower the number of lines) so that you can get paid for your work and time. Your prices do look very low, so you can definitely raise your prices. If you don't want to do that because of low sales, at least lower the number of lines that you offer and add in some gig extras. The consulting fee would be one. You might want to charge extra for designs that you might include with your poems (and have different charges for text only, borders, borders with graphics, color, etc.). It looks like you are doing this already. Try to think of services that you are already doing that could be an add on service. You may find out that you are giving away a lot of extras for free.

[moikchap]

I approached it as if I was looking for a Poem to use as a riddle/clue in one of my D&D adventures. So, I checked out the gig images to see if you already did anything that looks like what I would want. None of them do, because none of them have an obvious rhyme scheme when I read them aloud in my head. Basically, each of the preview images are too artistic/complex and would not appeal to me as a buyer with no experience in the field or interest in the category. I don't understand these to be poems. I have a very simple and cliché personal definition of a poem. To get my interest, I would want to see basically a clever limerick .

[sabinespoems]

1 hour ago, vickieito said:

I don't think a profile picture is necessary in your case. I really like your logo profile picture design and think you've branded yourself perfectly with this. Just make sure this design transfers over to all of your gig thumbnails that you'll have.

Yay it's Vickie! I'm glad you responded and as usual, provided great advice 😄. I've used a different thumbnail for my gig, but I was definitely planning on keeping that consistent (but perhaps changing the color scheme for example). 

1 hour ago, vickieito said:

You might even offer a consulting fee for those who need a little more guidance/help. I think you are doing a lot of that (and it shouldn't be for free).

This is definitely the case and an interesting point! Many buyers mention they're new to the site or have a difficult time explaining their ideas for example. So this does take up my time, but I find it hard to charge for this since it's all before an actual order is placed. But I'm going to think a bit about how I can put this into practice as a Gig Extra!

1 hour ago, vickieito said:

You can definitely raise your prices (or lower the number of lines) so that you can get paid for your work and time. Your prices do look very low, so you can definitely raise your prices. If you don't want to do that because of low sales, at least lower the number of lines that you offer and add in some gig extras.

The reason for the number of lines is that I find it easier to write more lines in order to get emotions across compared to short and concise 😅. I always thought that this is a win-win; buyers get more for their money and it meets my preference. But as I'm writing this I realize some buyers might not order because of the number of lines since they only need, let's say, 12. I think I'll lower the lines for now, and once my sales drought is over I'll increase the prices again 🤔

2 hours ago, vickieito said:

You might want to charge extra for designs that you might include with your poems (and have different charges for text only, borders, borders with graphics, color, etc.). It looks like you are doing this already. Try to think of services that you are already doing that could be an add on service.

I always deliver in one style (the borders etc), so my portfolio is all in one style, and never thought about including this in the service tbh. I used to think about delivering with a background image until I realized this will get me in trouble copyright-wise and never thought about it again. Now I realize there are plenty of royalty & copyright-free sources I could use too. 

Thank you so much for your good points! I think my entrepreneurial mindset still needs to develop more haha. I focus a bit too much on my core business, without thinking about all the extras I could scrape more money from.    

[sabinespoems]

1 hour ago, moikchap said:

I have a very simple and cliché personal definition of a poem. To get my interest, I would want to see basically a clever limerick .

That's actually a really good point I would've never thought of myself! Since poetry writing is basically what I do for a (partial) living, I guess I thought my examples would convey the art. But you opened my eyes and made me see that simple and straightforward might work better for people without any experience 🤔

Thank you for providing a 'buyers' point of view! 

[manuelmarino]

There are different forms of art. Being artists is even more deep than just uploading things, it's a way of life, of seeing life (symbols, intuition, feelings). Indeed this is art. 🙂👍

[manuelmarino]

15 hours ago, sabinespoems said:

Thank you! I'm curious as to why you believe the forum profile is important though? It's not connected to your Fiverr seller account. So if perhaps your tip is based on people finding me here and going to my profile, I just want to let you know it doesn't really work like that. Most people on this forum are sellers so the likelihood of getting sales from the forum is very low (if any chance at all).

While many are sellers, (the posters) the forum is open to anyone, anyway 🙂 but my suggestion is not for selling, but for branding, reputation. Forum profile is also very good for this. 

[catwriter]

11 hours ago, sabinespoems said:

Many buyers mention they're new to the site or have a difficult time explaining their ideas for example. So this does take up my time, but I find it hard to charge for this since it's all before an actual order is placed. But I'm going to think a bit about how I can put this into practice as a Gig Extra!

Or maybe not a gig extra, but a consultation gig for those who need it?

[miiila]

Firstly, congratulations on your two years. Many register, but many don't reach that mark, for sure, it's easy to enter, but not for the faint of heart to stay. 😉

I can only reiterate the "girl, raise your prices", and "more Gigs".

I'd also suggest, if you're going to edit your Gigs anyway, go all the way, don't just edit your descriptions, write them anew from scratch, exchange all the Gig images, rethink your Gig tier structures, try thinking of setting up one Gig that does not utilise the 3 tiers, but is super easy to understand and click (I know, everyone says use the tiers, but I just relaunched a Gig that had 3 tiers, and which I'd paused for a while even, while pondering how to restructure it, and finally thought, what the heck, and published it with just one tier, which would've been the highest priced of the formerly three, and pretty much immediately got a direct order. It's to be seen if it will really catch on, but a nice start, so far, and worth a try. I think many people are confused by the 3-tier structure, so if you offer a "simpler" option, maybe it helps those lost in Fiverr Gig options people to decide).

I'd also second the suggestion for a wider variety of samples, poems, kid's rhymes, rhymed riddles, etc. Maybe one focus on song lyrics might be worth a thought, too.

I very much understand your reservations about an actual photo, but maybe grant yourself a shiny new profile image for the new year and your third Fiverr year, anyhow. Whether you'd call it rebranding, overhaul, or a new paint coat, maybe grant yourself a new (out)look, you've earned it, and it could motivate and inspire you to new heights and Gigs, looking at something new.

In any case, have fun trying out some things, you never know, and you can trash anything that won't work, after all, to make room for new things.

Lastly, don't worry too much, I think most if not all of us have seen such lulls in orders. But still get doing, of course. 🙂

[sabinespoems]

4 hours ago, catwriter said:

Or maybe not a gig extra, but a consultation gig for those who need it?

That could definitely work! I was also contemplating a poem proofread/edit gig, but since I'd be new to that I need to research how to set it up (pricing/word count etc). I've had buyers come to me for this, so I might as well set up a separate gig for it 🤓

[sabinespoems]

2 hours ago, miiila said:

Firstly, congratulations on your two years. Many register, but many don't reach that mark, for sure, it's easy to enter, but not for the faint of heart to stay. 😉

I can only reiterate the "girl, raise your prices", and "more Gigs".

Thank you! 🎂 It certainly requires dedication and not allowing your heart rate to go up when dealing with certain buyers 😅. I'm definitely looking into how to expand my gigs and in due time I'll raise my prices. It's nice to have confirmation through all this feedback that raising my prices further isn't a farfetched thing to do (if not simply vital with the cost of living!).

2 hours ago, miiila said:

I think many people are confused by the 3-tier structure, so if you offer a "simpler" option, maybe it helps those lost in Fiverr Gig options people to decide).

That's a really good point actually. I'm also one to think that offering more options gives a broader range to fit a buyer's wishes. But some people might see it as a hassle or are confused by it all and then think, "Well, never mind!". I'm definitely going to think about how, and for what gig, I could incorporate that 🤔

2 hours ago, miiila said:

I very much understand your reservations about an actual photo, but maybe grant yourself a shiny new profile image for the new year and your third Fiverr year, anyhow.

Like @vickieitomentioned about my logo, I really like it myself too. However! I don't think the logo is the reason why people order from me. It helps of course, and I won't switch it for a bad-looking equivalent haha. So freshening things up with an 'equally' good theme might be nice, even if it's just for myself for some new start & inspiration! 

2 hours ago, miiila said:

In any case, have fun trying out some things, you never know, and you can trash anything that won't work, after all, to make room for new things.

Lastly, don't worry too much, I think most if not all of us have seen such lulls in orders. But still get doing, of course.

That's all very true too! I'm in a luxury position of not having to rely on my income from Fiverr, as well as not just starting out so I already have a base to work with. I'll definitely get to doing! Thank you so much for all the things you shared 😄