Fiverr 4.0 - Some thoughts on the current state of things

[visualstudios]

10 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

In my case, i paid 25% plus the 20% Fiverr commission. So, I cleared $92 of $205.

And that's before taxes and other expenses lol.

You'll own nothing and you'll like it!

[donnovan86]

To be honest Promoted Gigs has never been extremely impressive, at least in my case. It's lucrative, and it does bring in clients that can be repeat buyers in the long run. At least that was the case for me. The downside is they count all the income generated by that buyer as Promoted Gigs income, which is not exactly accurate. 

[danno1950]

We had an interesting discussion about all the economic factors that might be causing slumps for us freelancers, and how buyers are hesitating to buy right now. I'm wondering - could those same types of factors be impacting Promoted Gigs in a similar way. It intuitively makes sense that if buyers are not as active right now, a Promoted Gig won't motivate them to make a purchase.

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/301169-how-a-recession-can-affect-us-as-sellers-and-freelancers/#comment-1896027

 

[vickiespencer]

56 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

The downside is they count all the income generated by that buyer as Promoted Gigs income, which is not exactly accurate. 

I asked CS about this and was told that only the first sale on Promoted Gigs counted as income unless the buyer contacted us through a promoted gig a second time instead of through our inbox. 

[Alex.M]

19 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

income unless the buyer contacted us through a promoted gig a second

 I don't believe so.. I had a single buyer from promoted gigs in March and after the first order he asked for a custom quote... and I sent it.. same after the second order and on my promoted gigs page I see that I have 3 orders from that gig... not only 1 as it should be.. It clearly says 3 orders.

[vickiespencer]

Did it say "promoted" at the top of the message when they contacted you for the second and third orders? 

[Alex.M]

26 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

Did it say "promoted" at the top of the message when they contacted you for the second and third orders? 

No, only once at top of our conversation but on the promoted gigs page it shows up as 3 orders

[kendal1747]

On 3/28/2023 at 4:08 PM, donnovan86 said:

I guess it is what it is. 

Fiverr giveth and Fiverr taketh away.

[terrygrantvo]

2 hours ago, vickiespencer said:

I asked CS about this and was told that only the first sale on Promoted Gigs counted as income unless the buyer contacted us through a promoted gig a second time instead of through our inbox. 

As I understand it, any work from a buyer who found you thru a promoted gig counts as 'promoted' for a 30 day period.

 

I'm not at all surprised we're all getting conflicting info from our SM's and CSA's.

[kendal1747]

2 minutes ago, terrygrantvo said:

I'm not at all surprised we're all getting conflicting info from our SM's and CSA's.

And......the mystery continues.

[terrygrantvo]

I'm probably going to opt out of both promoted gigs and seller plus.

 

My march was $41 spent and zero returned. The month before that was $37 and $25 returned, but that 25 was a one line pickup for an order that was a month old, so.. whatever.

Promoted gigs has never been much use, over here, and there has to be a tipping point beyond which it's just not effective anymore, and maybe we're there.

 

As for seller plus, ehh - the buyer stats are nice and request to order seems like it'd be helpful, although I'm afraid to turn it on and end up buried in the search.

Honestly, the only reason I haven't already cancelled both is that 1)- I write all this off anyhow, and 2)- I don't trust that there wouldn't be some retribution from the algorithm for having done so.

 

Nothing would surprise me, anymore. 

[donnovan86]

13 minutes ago, terrygrantvo said:

I'm probably going to opt out of both promoted gigs and seller plus.

 

Considering the results, I can see why you opted out. I can't say I had extremely good results, but overall the ROI was positive for me, so I will keep it. 

Seller plus, I am keeping it solely because I am one of the first 200 that opted for the service, so we were grandfathered into premium without a dime. Some of the benefits are helpful, the success manager isn't exactly an exceptional service since they can offer limited help, but it can be helpful especially for newcomers. 

[sabinespoems]

This turn of discussion about promoted gigs really intrigues me, because I always felt it did make an impact for me. For example, my March receipt was $24 spend which resulted in $143 sales. In case it's relevant, my daily budget is $15. But my conversion rate is pretty low (70 clicks and 3 orders). 

However, especially since my 'organic' sales have basically came to a stop I feel the promoted gigs are the only way for me to generate at least some revenue. 

I'm curious what April will bring though. After reading this entire thread I'm not all that positive! 

[donnovan86]

It's hard to say. For me, Promoted Gigs has been on a decline revenue-wise ever since January ended. But I always saw it as an extra way to generate some income, not a primary revenue generator. Hopefully it remains the former option, and it doesn't transform into the latter one...

[danno1950]

8 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

It's hard to say. For me, Promoted Gigs has been on a decline revenue-wise ever since January ended. But I always saw it as an extra way to generate some income, not a primary revenue generator. Hopefully it remains the former option, and it doesn't transform into the latter one...

Well said, Alex. I've had the same experience, and hope it doesn't have to become a primary revenue generator as well.

[williambryan392]

8 hours ago, visualstudios said:

And for the people saying a 10x return on promoted gigs is good... It's not. It would be if that was the whole picture. It isn't.

You're paying 10% on promotion... plus the 20% commission. Fiverr is actually taking 30% of all your earnings.

I’m the one saying that lol 😆 

And again I go back to ‘if I can get a 3.3 X return on my spend’ (20%+10%) then that’s still likely better than my own website.

And that’s assuming all sales are promoted gigs whereas they currently make up 30% or less typically of total sales.

8 hours ago, visualstudios said:

When will it stop?

50% / 2 X return on my spend on all gigs. If I’m making e.g. 600K a year on fiverr (BIG e.g, I’m not talking real numbers) and they charge me 50% / take 300K then at that point it will be crossing the line of not being worth it
 

However I think there’s still room to grow… new gigs, new pricing strategy, new retention strategy.

 

[marykipper]

Promoted gigs was worthwhile for me once upon a time,however since the new year set in my sales on fiverr in particular have been on a constant downtrend. What’s really odd is just before my promoted gigs bill was due my clicks mysteriously shot up with no orders 🤔

With regards to lack of orders I don’t think anyone is addressing the elephant in the room AI. Since the release of chatgpt I have accepted that it will hugely effect my work on fiverr. I expect this drought to continue as people try to navigate and test out all the new ai apps. 

On a more positive note, someone earlier mentioned selling fiverr shares please do tell if you manage to tank their share prices as I wouldn't mind buying low 🤭 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by marykipper

[bjornbauerart]

I've been playing around with AI a bit to see if it can recreate what I do. Feeding my own artwork into Midjourney along with some prompts inspired by what a client might ask for yields unusable trash. I mean, some of the visuals it tries to implement are interesting, but it completely fails to recreate my drawing style, and it makes a lot of obvious drawing mistakes that I would have to correct. I was actually hoping it could function as a sort of studio assistant, where it could output components of a design to my specifications that would normally be time-consuming to draw myself. But at this point it's not even able to do that effectively. Yes, the hyperreal photo based stuff it produces is amazing, but in terms of replacing a human who actually knows how to draw, I don't think we're there yet.

[Alex.M]

Another thing someone mentioned somewhere else... when you search your gig in your category, a few days/weeks ago the gigs were not in the same place as they are now, the search engine was more dynamic and it seems that now everything is static.. when you refresh the page in a category the gigs don't move at all, they are always in the same place

[uk1000]

15 minutes ago, cre8iveartwork said:

the search engine was more dynamic and it seems that now everything is static

It does the same for me. The only thing that seems to change on a page refresh are the 4 promoted gigs at the top. Maybe they've taken a random element out of it (that was to give more sellers a more equal chance). Or maybe they're calling the algorithm a bit less often (caching more?). In the last site update they mentioned something about making the site more efficient. Maybe that could have something to do with it.

If it's hardly changing that doesn't very fair to sellers and won't be giving buyers much of a choice I think.

[markp]

26 minutes ago, cre8iveartwork said:

Another thing someone mentioned somewhere else... when you search your gig in your category, a few days/weeks ago the gigs were not in the same place as they are now, the search engine was more dynamic and it seems that now everything is static.. when you refresh the page in a category the gigs don't move at all, they are always in the same place

That post you are referring to. I think the guy is mistaken and is making the error of looking at his own search results. They are going to appear to be static regardless of if you use a standard search or incognito mode because you are going to get search results served to you specifically. if you search using "other methods" you will get different results. if the results were static it would defeat the whole purpose of what the algorithm is supposed to do.

[uk1000]

5 minutes ago, markp said:

They are going to appear to be static regardless of if you use a standard search or incognito mode because you are going to get search results served to you specifically.

But it's still working differently than before. It used to seemingly randomize them (at least partially - some moved a bit but stayed in a similar place) when you refreshed the page after a while. Maybe people can use some system that changes their IP address to see if things change, but it also might affect buyers if they refresh a page and don't get anything different (though I assume the intent is for them to use the next page/filtering options, though there's a limit to the amount of pages it shows - 20 pages).

Edited April 2, 2023 by uk1000

[Alex.M]

4 minutes ago, markp said:

. if you search using "other methods" you will get different results.

I understand what you are saying and you are partially correct but a few weeks ago every gig was changing when you refreshed the page, now everything is in the same place no matter what you do. If you use incognito mode yes there are different results however if you try to refresh the page there... nothing changes again

[markp]

1 hour ago, uk1000 said:

Maybe people can use some system that changes their IP address to see if things change,

Use a VPN. the results are different. There are not huge changes but there are changes and I would also suggest to use different devices. The results are not definitely not static

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by markp

[leannelrivers]

On 3/31/2023 at 1:51 PM, katakatica said:

I wonder, though, did anyone who's going through a slump (and is in seller plus) also get the email?

I got it a couple of days ago. My only first time buyers have been really happy, so it's either something from weeks or months ago, or the buyers weren't honest with me and used the private review to express that. But I don't believe that the last 3 new buyers were dissatisfied at all. I'm still in communication with one of them about a continuation of the project and he's delighted with the work and the relationship so far. I don't know what else I can do to please clients enough in order to avoid these blackouts, other than pandering to every demand and unreasonable request. And not telling us why our buyers aren't completely happy doesn't help. Kafka comes to mind. 

Edited April 2, 2023 by leannelrivers