No Sales Since New Interface and Star Rating System

[fiveathome]

I have been working on Fiverr for more than three years now and I always told everyone that this is the best place for freelancers. In the past year, Fiverr became my main income source and I was very pleased with the system, as I suppose that most of you guys were.



However, now it has been two weeks since my sales have dropped dramatically: 4 orders in 14 days!!! This is absurd and totally unacceptable. I then started to look closely at every detail and found out that there are sellers who are listed in front of me, even though they have less sales and positive reviews than I do.



The support team told me that this information cannot be disclosed to users - fine, I get that, it’s alright, but then, where is the logic in this? How can someone with 150 positive reviews be listed above someone with 400 of them (as is my case).



Then there is the new star-based rating system. The idea and all seems fine, but I received 4 stars with a comment that my work was excellent and that my service is highly recommended. How can Fiverr allow this? That comment should be associated with a pure 5 star rating in all three fields. As sellers, we should be able to find out why we were rated less than 5 stars. Isn’t there an editorial team that should take care of these discrepancies?



And then there is the main issue with the latest Fiverr updates. The Gig pool pages have been changed constantly over the past three weeks or so, only to include a check-box system on the left side of the page. Buyers have toe possibility to filter sellers by checking various boxes there. Now, imagine (or don’t, this might have already happened to you as well) that a buyer checks the ‘Top Rated’ box only. I am not a Top Rated seller, although my statistics and services are way better than those of some sellers who are ‘Top Rated’. Since the buyer checked that box, my Gig (and yours as well) doesn’t even show up on the results page.



Therefore, I am getting no orders at all!



Are Top Rated sellers going to handle all the business on Fiverr?! I think that’s both absurd and impossible. No matter how many orders these sellers will receive, they cannot handle the volume of purchases that are made every day - this will gradually lead to a decline for Fiverr and in time this beautiful success story will turn into an epic drama with thousands of victims, the company itself included.



I suggest eliminating the check-box field entirely, as this has proven extremely counterproductive. Furthermore, buyers should have to explain their choice of rating someone’s work.



What do you guys think about this? Have your sales been hit by these changes as well? What are your suggestions?

[darkq22]

My thoughts exactly. I’ve been told that “you’re not quite there yet” - referring to TRS by CS. Yet, I have close to 950 positive reviews, over 1.8 k completed orders.



Yeah, I’ve seen those TRS with way lower stats than mine as well.



How on earth have “higher volume of sales” when most buyers will order a service only because that specific seller is a TRS.



Maybe it’s related to non-US countries. Maybe we should of use VPNs as many others did. 🙂 Maybe we should offer spam services using bots and violate Google’s TOS and promise “guaranteed results” by offering a gazzilion spam comments, forum profile id links and bot generated “real traffic”.



Whatever…

[fiveathome]

Fact is, I am profoundly disappointed by these changes. I just can’t make any sense of these changes. I just hope that others who realize the gravity of the situation will state their opinions on these posts and maybe then things will get better again.

[fiveathome]

@kjblynx I used to have an average of 5 orders + Extras every day. Now I have none… I really don’t understand where this is all going, but it isn’t good at all.

[darkq22]

Reply to @kjblynx:



Regarding the video thumbnail. You can open a ticket and ask any of the CS to forward it to their technical team. You can specify a particular thumbnail.

[mrproofreading]

Reply to @darkq22: I understand what you mean, and I agree with the OP, as my sales have dropped dramatically.



I don’t think it’s related to non-US citizens though, as I’m from the UK. Similarly, your unrated orders ratio is almost 50%, which may be a factor. I have 1.3k completed with 1k positive reviews. You could try going back and prompting old customers to leave a review. However, that might do more harm than good with the ARS.

[darkq22]

Reply to @mrproofreading:



In 2011, 2012 and even the first quarter of 2013 the ranking system wasn’t that harsh.



As Fiverr grew, there’s a “natural selection” (metaphorically). The only issue with all the changes is that, like in a country’s economy, those with tons of sales get more, those with very few get close to nothing. 🙂



It’s quite useless promoting new arrivals as “Recommended” and to implement a segregation system as well (aka. show only TRS, Level 2 sellers, those who deliver in 1 day) because these two acts against each other.



So, it’s quite understandable what’s going on.



You know, on Fiverr it’s awesome if you (and few others) work as a team. I saw sellers having like 20 GIGs, and all with 30-40 in queue orders. Now, as you can imagine, it is impossible for one to take care of each and every message, order, feedback, etc.



Anyway, My feedback rate is only about 50% because I thought the feedbacks should flow naturally, like in the real life (when we vouch or recommend a product)… not to actually BEG someone to leave a 5 star feedback. But no, if this is the “trend”… I’m doing it as well.



I won’t contact 900 ex-buyers just for the sake of a review… I won’t do something really humiliating (I have enough dignity, unfortunately). Besides, many people maybe quit using Fiverr, other’s are not even familiar with the ARS… etc.



Anyway, Good luck! 🙂

[mrproofreading]

Reply to @darkq22: I’m not saying you need to go and beg. There’s a huge difference between begging and providing customer service (which encourages repeat purchases).



Simply dedicate a a few hours to messaging old buyers asking them to rate your service. Ask them if they need any additional work completing. I’m pretty sure you’ll get a few extra sales and reviews.



Like I said, I AGREE with you about the new search feature, which is why I’ve been using social media to promote my gigs, as well as buyer requests.

[darkq22]

Reply to @mrproofreading:



Thanks for the tip. I might actually take a few hours tomorrow and do it. Will come back with the stats. 🙂