How to handle slumps

[awdickson]

I'd love to get a discussion going on this. I have 2 VoiceOver gigs and at one point my income was regularly between $2000 and $3000 per calendar month. Not exactly the big leagues in fiverr VoiceOver, but I was very happy. Over the last 6 months my fiverr orders have dropped off a cliff. I'm lucky to make $800 a month. It didn't seem to matter if I was promoting the gigs or not. It's as though whatever algorithm helped push my gig to the top few pages decided I was no longer worthy. I've tried changing SEO tags based on what the popular searches are, and today I've changed my gig thumbnails and started promoting them again. What do you guys of if/when a gig starts to drop in sales?

[principalmike]

Good question! I have had a similar experience, and over the past few years had several such slumps. It seems to be down to a couple of things.

(a) The private feedback clients give to Fiverr, which we don't see

(b) The algorithm changing periodically and pushing certain gigs further down the rankings.

It's incredibly frustrating, but I'm not exactly sure what can be done, especially about (b). Like you, I'm still searching for an answer.

Edited April 25 by principalmike

[genesisbio]

I think the global financial outlook has a big impact on that. Most sellers right now are not doing well. My income too is cut in half. 

[socialphilia]

42 minutes ago, genesisbio said:

I think the global financial outlook has a big impact on that. Most sellers right now are not doing well. My income too is cut in half. 

This. I've spoken to a few people, including my success coach who has confirmed that as a whole Fiverr is seeing fewer clients making purchases. I think everyone is kind of pausing and being overly cautious with spending at the moment.

[asifemon0]

Same here mate. 

I think more freelancers coming in your sector and fiverrs algo giving all the new sellers a chance lead you to this. Also the main reason would be current economy.

[andrsquinterog]

I had the same problem during January and February. I do Translation. I went from 3-4K monthly to 1K. After doing some tweaks in my account regarding SEO, I regained my regular income for one month, but I went down to 1K again this month. I am using promoted gigs and sending coupons to my clients so they come back. I think this is happening to several sellers, and also, @genesisbio is correct about what is happening now globally.

I hope you can recover your regular income. Best of luck!

A.

[sergiostiven92]

That's weird. The platform should take an eye on those new profiles and give some priority to whose are working over here quite time ago. We have a continous workflow and clients that come back now and then. About promotion gigs feature is regular, honestly, doesn't provide clear numbers, it should be able to be shared on social media. 
We who are here quite time ago, can help in this improving processes. The goal is we all can grow up and keep this platform on the top rank.

Although this has happened before. 
That is why it is important to build customer loyalty, it is a pleasure to work on each challenge and meet new customers. 

We will continue to work, colleagues. Thank you 

[chrisdata]

I think its worlds economy & the raise of AI. This is out of our control and frankly I start shifting to other industry because AI is killing freelancing in a high pace speed. I also see fiverr start losing it purpose, 3 years later 90% of fiverr gig can created by AI.

[awdickson]

I totally recognise the drop in revenue due to the changing market conditions, but when your gig used to regularly feature in the top 2 or 3 pages in the "recommended" section and is now on page 14, you can also see how a key change between then and now is visibility. When I see a level 1 seller gig that does erotic NSFW voice recordings on page 4, I'm asking myself how can a niche market level 1 gig with 45 reviews be more visible and higher placed than a top level seller gig with hundreds and hundreds of 5 star reviews? How is that gig recommended higher than mine in a general search? If I typed NSFW as a search parameter I'd expect it to be 1st on the list, and rightly so - that's their market. But for that gig to be placed higher than mine in the overall recommended VoiceOver list is just weird. That person could be crazy talented and wonderful, but you wouldn't recommend their niche NSFW gig to the average fiverr customer over a gig that covers multiple genres, has more experience on the platform and has more reviews. If search engines did that we would complain they weren't doing their job properly. 

[zeus777]

All I can say is "it happens."
Since I've been on Fiverr for over 10 years, I guess nothing really surprises me at this point??
My sales are nothing close to yours BTW, Fiverr is just a little side income.
Back in January/February/March, my sales were pretty darn low, very low in fact I was actually quite shocked.
It felt so strange to have an entire week where I had zero orders!

having that said though, I did absolutely nothing. I didn't change the keywords, didn't update the gig description, nothing.
And sales just simply somewhat recovered from this month.
I just have my ups and down, that's all 😄

[hackney_dorothe]

Look at the big picture when in a slump. Sort chores by priority. Break the doldrums and focus on neglected aspects of life. Rest and clean. Focus on joy and positive people.  Breaking projects into smaller, more manageable portions and tackling them one by one can assist.

Consult trusted peers or mentors. Set achievable goals and take baby steps. Celebrate minor wins. Self-compassion is crucial. Slumps are hard, but they can teach you something.

[gongor32]

I have been in slump for a like 4 months straight private reviews shouldn't have been that bad since I have worked with my regulars mostly. Thinking AI gigs may have getting all the customers, this week suddenly gotten many messages, inquires spiked then gone down again. I don't know what to expect anymore. 🤔

[cubefix]

On 4/25/2023 at 4:52 PM, awdickson said:

Do you have seller plus? I always check with my seller partner and they give a much more detailed breakdown to how my gigs are performing.