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Fiverr 4.0 - Some thoughts on the current state of things


frank_d

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25 minutes ago, smashradio said:

With that said, I don't like working on there, because I don't want to spend time bidding, and most of the Norwegian projects relevant to me are from lowballing TTS companies in China. 

 

Exactly, bidding is a huge turnoff, here you get projects directly. The system is different and here it's more advantageous. 

28 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Oh, so it's just like promoted gigs, just better (since you won't spend money on spam)? Interesting.

We both know that's not the case 🙂 You have to bid manually and the chances of success are very low. I used the platform and other bid-focused platforms too, and I know Fiverr's approach is way better, that's why I chose them over others. Again, it might differ based on the niche we cover. We already talked about this and shared different views, so I won't go into that again. However, you can choose to use Fiverr and other platforms at once, that's the beauty of freelancing. You don't have any exclusive contract with anyone. However a lot of people choose Fiverr because they have better exposure and clients come to them. UPW, PPH and others are places where you can find talent, but let's face it, most buyers will choose established sellers and not someone new, they rarely do that. Especially when we talk about expensive projects... Again I respect your opinion, not arguing here, just sharing my own view from a perspective of a different type of seller, different niche, etc.

Edited by donnovan86
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19 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Now, on Fiverr, you pay for promoted gigs that may also not convert. It's the same principle.

The difference is that on UPW you craft messages and spend time to send those manually.

Fiverr... they handle everything for you and you just pay. You can also set up how much you pay and place limits. This is more like Google's Ads than anything. UPW uses the old school bidding process, just like Catwriter said it's more similar to the former buyer requests. The difference was that BR was free, this is not. You can spend quite a bit on bid points or whatever they are called, send bids and never hear back from anyone. That's the reason why I stopped trying there, because it bleeds money and the ROI was not great. Again, personal experiences differ because not everyone has the same niche. 

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2 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Exactly, bidding is a huge turnoff, here you get projects directly. The system is different and here it's more advantageous. 

I agree with that - the Upwork bidding process didn't work for me at all. I got some work there, but not enough to tolerate the process.

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Just now, donnovan86 said:

Exactly, bidding is a huge turnoff, here you get projects directly. The system is different and here it's more advantageous. 

Yes, while I do think the two platforms can be compared these days, given that Up is also doing the "gig thing" now, I see time as money, and right now, Up takes more time per dollar. But even so, I think a lot of sellers, most likely the ones working on big projects, will be tempted by "10%" instead of "20%".

2 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

You have to bid manually and the chances of success are very low. 

You don't have to. You can just create gigs there, too. 

For me, it's a matter of comfort. I simply like Fiverr better, and the buyers here are great, for the most part, so I'm not leaving anytime soon. But if Up is stepping up their game, Fiverr needs to do the same to keep their most talented pool of sellers on platform. 

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Just now, smashradio said:

For me, it's a matter of comfort. I simply like Fiverr better, and the buyers here are great, for the most part, so I'm not leaving anytime soon. But if Up is stepping up their game, Fiverr needs to do the same to keep their most talented pool of sellers on platform. 

I agree. I'll stick with Fiverr, but I think they need to evaluate what they're doing in order to remain competitive.

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Just now, donnovan86 said:

You can also set up how much you pay and place limits. This is more like Google's Ads than anything. 

If only they had the same systems in place to not charge sellers for spam clicks. They can, but they haven't done so. I'm basically paying for spammers to click my ad on Fiverr and send me "contact on t€legr@m huge data entry work sir". 

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The slump thing is everywhere. I have received only one organic order in past 40 days. There are clicks on promoted gig but no messages, let alone an order. ( Two months ago story was different).

It would have been difficult if it weren’t from my old buyers, surprisingly some came after 3-4 months. Something sinister is happening, not because Fiverr algo is too judgemental now. 
After all, not everyone’s BSR and other metrics can be mediocre at the same time. We have a new demon in the house aka AI.

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10 minutes ago, ahmad_2802 said:

The slump thing is everywhere. I have received only one organic order in past 40 days. There are clicks on promoted gig but no messages, let alone an order. ( Two months ago story was different).

It would have been difficult if it weren’t from my old buyers, surprisingly some came after 3-4 months. Something sinister is happening, not because Fiverr algo is too judgemental now. 
After all, not everyone’s BSR and other metrics can be mediocre at the same time. We have a new demon in the house aka AI.

It isn't happening to everyone. My own slump last month can be easily explained by being less active on the platform overall, and I'm still at the top of search results and have more orders than I can handle, to the point of having to set myself as unavailable to control the number of projects I get. 

Inflation, this being spring-time (i.e. marketing budgets are already spent before the holiday season and lots of companies holding off until the next one), tech startup crisis due to bank failures, rising costs, it all plays a part into our revenue, as does our performance. 

This happening to a lot of reputable people I know aren't underperforming, tells me that the current financial crisis must be affecting a lot of sellers, even the best ones. Sure, there might be changes to the algo, but I don't think Fiverr would intentially put reputable high-status sellers in a slump on purpose. 

@newsmike I've done a bit of searching and you consistently land on page 2 - 3 for me when searching for "american voice over" or "american male voice over". If I filter for "pro" you're among the first three results. I'm not sure how that compares to before for you, but at least your gig isn't buried on page 10. It could indicate that buyers are looking for cheaper deals at the moment, as I've experienced a similar trend with my copywriting gig (also Pro). Especially I've noticed fewer orders from regular clients, and that's not down to the algo, unless they're using it to search for cheaper sellers. 

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19 minutes ago, smashradio said:

This happening to a lot of reputable people I know aren't underperforming, tells me that the current financial crisis must be affecting a lot of sellers, even the best ones. Sure, there might be changes to the algo, but I don't think Fiverr would intentially put reputable high-status sellers in a slump on purpose. 

Well said, and that gets to it in a nutshell.

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First of all thank you all for being so helpful!

Anyone can contribute something efficient about the promoted gig's feature too? As, For the last few months my Promoted gig feature didn't realy stay stable. And the Important part is, When It's on, My gigs comes back in searches and on the first page of the category as well.

And when the feature is disabled ( Even keeping performance almost perfect at my end). Gigs goes dead in searches, impressions and thus orders.

I recently got this thread about promoted gig feature, That fiverr is simplifying their algorithm on 15th of April. Anyone can guide me about what kind of update it might be? 

IMG-20230316-WA0000.jpeg

Edited by umerali764
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4 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

So yeah, there's no comparison because UPW has a bid system, whereas Fiverr doesn't and they do it all for you. 

Just in fairness to myself to hedge against a continued slump at Fiverr, I revisited Upwork. I was active on it for a while, but I hadn't been there in 2 years. After a few minutes of trying to navigate their "connect" bid model, I remembered why I preferred Fiverr. So for now I'm just inclined wait it out on Fiverr.

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1 hour ago, umerali764 said:

recently got this thread about promoted gig feature, That fiverr is simplifying their algorithm on 15th of April. Anyone can guide me about what kind of update it might be? 

IMG-20230316-WA0000.jpeg

Thanks for sharing this - very enlightening! I haven't gotten this notification yet. It looks like it is saying that it will add the feature that we will be shown the winning bid on a cost-per-click basis. I think that will help us set our cost-per-click prices above the winning bid, if I understand correctly what this update will accomplish.

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7 hours ago, leannelrivers said:

5 bucks plus broadcast rights. 

  

8 hours ago, visualstudios said:

they may well go back to being the place where you hire Jesus to sing you happy birthday for 10 bucks

Machine Jesus will sing happy birthday in any language for $5--broadcast rights and unlimited revisions included.

 

6 hours ago, vovkaslovesnyy said:

I have a lot of returning customers (50-70% depending on the month), and I understand that they don't want to fill out all those surveys. As I understand, now I have to ask them to do that to stay afloat.

I'm about a month into a long multiple orders with milestones project for a client who very obviously works more than a 12 hour day and likely gets little time off in general. I can feel their exhaustion every time they return to activate a milestone again. I'm not asking them for more reviews; it feels beyond wrong.

And they are still new to Fiverr, so when they come back and might see a lot of things from me or Fiverr in their inbox, in a language that they still might need help translating, I can see where it would be overwhelming or even off-putting.

@smashradio @danno1950 I do think the way 'that site' works results in better matches. I might be off, and other sellers might have another strategy, but I only go for things I know I'm appropriate for. Whereas here, for example, if you've never sounded like a 12 year old even when you were one and someone wanting that hits that "order now" button, you are in for a ride--that might be invisible for 90 days.

@frank_d Happy birthday and sugar high! I read through the entire thread searching for clarification of email notification when your BSR dips and didn't find much. Is that for everyone, those who pay the premium monthly seller subscription rate, or...?

Edited by mandyzines
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11 hours ago, umerali764 said:

I recently got this thread about promoted gig feature, That fiverr is simplifying their algorithm on 15th of April. Anyone can guide me about what kind of update it might be?

There's a "learn more" option on the "optimizing your return" section that it's showing you. Just click the "Learn More" option.

Edited by uk1000
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10 hours ago, danno1950 said:

I revisited Upwork.

I've had a profile there for a while that I left to basically rot. I have gone back to beef it up and take advantage of the new features just to see what happens. It has its pros and cons like every platform, but it is another egg in some form of basket. For voice over it's tough, by the time I get to see the job posts with good budgets they've got something like 20-50 bids (very vague), at that point it seems pointless to bid. 

And they do still take 20%. That reduces with return clients. I think once you hit $500 in sales with one client the commission goes down. We kind of have a loyalty system here too in the form of coupons, but that comes out of the sellers pocket so I never use them. 

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1 minute ago, leannelrivers said:

For voice over it's tough, by the time I get to see the job posts with good budgets they've got something like 20-50 bids (very vague), at that point it seems pointless to bid. 

It's even worse for writing. That's why I left that platform, since it's really hard to deal with established writers there. Most people choose them instead of you, and that becomes a huge problem if you want to make the profile stand out. 

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frank_d
This post was recognized by frank_d!

"Great find!"

uk1000 was awarded the badge 'Helpful' and 50 points.

Also about the promoted gigs that was mentioned earlier.

It says:

Quote

We’re simplifying our algorithm to maximize your return over time. Starting April 15, the CPC (cost-per-click) will reflect the winning bid.

The "Learn more" option points to https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/4405489899153-How-Promoted-Gigs-works-Ad-ranking-explained?segment=seller

which says:

Quote

Remember: You will only pay if a potential buyer clicks on your ad. The amount is determined based on the results of a first-price auction mechanism.

That used to say:

Quote

"Remember: You will only pay if a potential buyer clicks on your ad. The amount is determined based on the results of a second-price auction mechanism. This guarantees that you’ll only pay the minimum amount required to outbid your competitor.".

So doesn't that that mean that you'll be paying more if you win the auction for an ad on/after 15th April?

From perprlexity.ai:

Quote

In a first-price auction, the highest bidder pays exactly what they bid, while in a second-price auction, the winning bidder pays an amount that's one cent more than the bid price of the second-highest bidder

Edited by uk1000
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3 hours ago, leannelrivers said:

For voice over it's tough, by the time I get to see the job posts with good budgets they've got something like 20-50 bids (very vague), at that point it seems pointless to bid. 

Interesting that you revisited Upwork as well. When I went there, the jobs in my area were all about things that I don't provide, so that's where I lost interest.

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17 hours ago, smashradio said:

@newsmike I've done a bit of searching and you consistently land on page 2 - 3 for me when searching for "american voice over" or "american male voice over". If I filter for "pro" you're among the first three results. I'm not sure how that compares to before for you, but at least your gig isn't buried on page 10.

Interesting. I struggle to understand the lack of exposure from Fiverr though. The decrease in impressions from 5,000 daily to 100 daily is a sudden change, and the fact that many are experiencing it at the same time is just odd. My guess is that they tried some new adjustment to algo, and as usual, now sit back and see what it breaks. 

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2 hours ago, newsmike said:

The decrease in impressions from 5,000 daily to 100 daily is a sudden change, and the fact that many are experiencing it at the same time is just odd. My guess is that they tried some new adjustment to algo, and as usual, now sit back and see what it breaks. 

I absolutely agree, Mike. The circumstances are just too widespread to say "chance occurrence." My only hope is that enough sellers will lose revenue that it will motivate Fiverr to address the impact of their latest algo tinkering.

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3 hours ago, danno1950 said:

My only hope is that enough sellers will lose revenue that it will motivate Fiverr to address the impact of their latest algo tinkering.

As I said, this last algorithm update must be related to the first buyer reviews, because I see a lot of people dealing with a lack of orders and inquiries. So it's most likely that, but who knows really... 

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19 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

As I said, this last algorithm update must be related to the first buyer reviews, because I see a lot of people dealing with a lack of orders and inquiries. So it's most likely that, but who knows really... 

It really makes me wonder if they still have control over the algorithm itself, or if the developers are doing things without adequate supervision or training on how it is supposed to function, which leads to substantial negative impact on sellers.

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4 minutes ago, danno1950 said:

It really makes me wonder if they still have control over the algorithm itself, or if the developers are doing things without adequate supervision or training on how it is supposed to function, which leads to substantial negative impact on sellers.

 

Twitter had only about 10,000 more coders than Fiverr and I remember this...

 

image.png.6a077c528e86d631ee54f674532ec710.png

 

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