Fiverr PRO 2.0

[levinewman]

2 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Yeah, this is how the sort should have been for quite some time. I just hope they don't go crazy with this new initiative of just promoting sellers who up till now could not qualify for PRO to that status to fill the ranks as we've seen some claiming, even folks who never applied. If we just make everyone PRO then it has no meaning. I still think that sellers should have to earn PRO.

And I don't think people with less than 5,000 reviews on Fiverr should be PRO. It's almost like being a "Pro" meant nothing before and is finally meaning something if real sellers are being chosen for the first time. Ironic.

[danno1950]

31 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

Mine are fine. 

Thanks for letting me know, Vickie. May just be on my profile.

[vickiespencer]

9 minutes ago, danno1950 said:

Thanks for letting me know, Vickie. May just be on my profile.

Maybe a visual glitch. 

[danno1950]

1 minute ago, vickiespencer said:

12 minutes ago, danno1950 said:

Thanks for letting me know, Vickie. May just be on my profile.

Maybe a visual glitch. 

Great point! I just tried the message thread on another browser, and it was fine. Looks totally about the browser.

[newsmike]

8 minutes ago, danno1950 said:

Great point! I just tried the message thread on another browser, and it was fine. Looks totally about the browser.

I don't see it. 

[danno1950]

8 minutes ago, newsmike said:

I don't see it. 

Thanks for the further confirmation, Mike.

[tme2012]

6 hours ago, newsmike said:

I just realized what is probably going on.  Wanna bet they are letting AI vet and promote people to PRO? Hence the inability to spot poor English skills.  We know they are gaga over AI.

Maybe the email was from an AI that has become self-aware inside of Fiverr's mainframe and anyone who goes to the onboarding will be terminated for replacement. 

[dylesto]

12 hours ago, bethanyvo said:

This happened to me today and a few other sellers I know of also. I’m thrilled to now be PRO but definitely curious what this all means

 

Do you have projects in your portfolio or big companies in the clients tab?

[dylesto]

4 hours ago, levinewman said:

In fact, it will be the first thing I pitch next week. Pros with less than 5,000 reviews should have reduced effectiveness when paired against TRS and Pros with more than 5,000.

 

I don't understand, I only have around 8 reviews (I am new) but still managed to make around 1000 dollar per order. So according to you, the review farms with thousands of reviews who sell absolutely nothing for 5 dollar should be placed higher than those focusing on quality and customer satisfaction?

[catwriter]

8 hours ago, levinewman said:

And I don't think people with less than 5,000 reviews on Fiverr should be PRO.

That would exclude all the sellers who primarily work on bigger projects that take a month or more to complete.

[nickkold]

27 minutes ago, catwriter said:

That would exclude all the sellers who primarily work on bigger projects that take a month or more to complete.

I would agree with @catwriter & @dylesto here. I also mainly do bigger orders & I also use RTO every month, simply to choose between clients, so I'm sure I can deliver a good service every time. So I'm not into just taking in as many orders as possible, because I want to take the time it needs to deliver a good output for the customer. Not saying that others, that has a lot of orders every day, can't do the same - but this is just what works for me.

I think this is at least as "Pro" a mindset as someone who does 5k orders or reviews. This is in a way a different skill-set and doing a lot of orders is another skill-set, as I see it. But one doesn't make the other person more of a Pro than the other. I've worked in my field for 17+ years plus now. I got vetted into Pro, because of my portfolio. So I come from a background working professionally with an agency (Sony Music Publishing) & through that got big clients like Nike, Louis Vuitton, BMW, Haglöfs etc. 

In my perspective, this is at least as experienced and worthy of the "Pro" badge as someone with 5k reviews - so I respectfully disagree with @levinewman here. It's probably also a different kind of customer that goes in and orders a $1000 order - someone who needs your dedication and attention. I think there's room for both ways of being a "Pro" on Fiverr (low amount of reviews vs high amount) and I would imagine Fiverr as well wants both kinds of Freelancers represented on the platform. Hopefully.

Edited July 6, 2023 by nickkold

[vickieito]

Just wanted to say that I deeply respect any Pro seller who goes through Fiverr's vetted process to achieve Pro status. 

That includes all our new Pro sellers who were vetted through this new process that looks very similar to the TRS vetting process. We don't see Fiverr's criteria, but they are vetting these new Pro sellers. And these sellers are getting recognized for their hard work and contribution to Fiverr's platform. So kudos to all our new Pro sellers! 🥳🎉

I'm also happy that @lalitsdmittal got the Pro status because it's obvious from his reviews that he knows how to keep his customers happy and is a superhero to many who come to the platform frustrated with their problems, and he eliminates them - and at lightning speed. We need more sellers like that on Fiverr's platform.

I'm really interested in how Fiverr will roll out this new Pro program. Although I think @levinewman's number of 5,000 reviews is high, I do agree that sellers should demonstrate experience on this platform before becoming Pro. Running a business on Fiverr is unlike any other business out there. Pro sellers should be adept with the strange nuances that only exist here on Fiverr (and the unique rules that are outlined in the ToS and Community Standards). Some sellers may only take a year (or even shorter than that) to get to that level and others may require much more time.

[nickkold]

56 minutes ago, vickieito said:

Just wanted to say that I deeply respect any Pro seller who goes through Fiverr's vetted process to achieve Pro status. 

That includes all our new Pro sellers who were vetted through this new process that looks very similar to the TRS vetting process. We don't see Fiverr's criteria, but they are vetting these new Pro sellers. And these sellers are getting recognized for their hard work and contribution to Fiverr's platform. So kudos to all our new Pro sellers! 🥳🎉

I'm also happy that @lalitsdmittal got the Pro status because it's obvious from his reviews that he knows how to keep his customers happy and is a superhero to many who come to the platform frustrated with their problems, and he eliminates them - and at lightning speed. We need more sellers like that on Fiverr's platform.

I'm really interested in how Fiverr will roll out this new Pro program. Although I think @levinewman's number of 5,000 reviews is high, I do agree that sellers should demonstrate experience on this platform before becoming Pro. Running a business on Fiverr is unlike any other business out there. Pro sellers should be adept with the strange nuances that only exist here on Fiverr (and the unique rules that are outlined in the ToS and Community Standards). Some sellers may only take a year (or even shorter than that) to get to that level and others may require much more time.

I think they will miss a lot of potential "Pro" sellers this way. I wouldn't have signed up to Fiverr if they hadn't accepted me into Pro based on my previous experience. Fiverr is not my main clientele - so I wouldn't have considered it, if I had to go through the normal process. I'm glad I gave it a try because I like it here - but I wouldn't have considered it - hadn't it been for Fiverr's "Pro" application.

Fiverr is very overlooked among my peers, so - at least in the field I'm working in - it would need something extra to get colleagues to sign up - and that's where the Pro application for example convinced me to give it a try. This is of course an example from my own experience and not claiming this as a fact or anything - purely based on subjective observations.

I guess my point is, if they want to recruit people working in the field professionally - chances of getting them to use the site - are going to be much higher if they vet based on industry experience as well. The other method is gonna lower the chances a lot of recruiting that category of freelancers, I think.

If Fiverr is interested in this type of "Pro" at all - I don't know, but that's just my 2 cents.

Okay, enough forums for me for today 😅 - have a great day everyone out there!

Edited July 6, 2023 by nickkold

[levinewman]

@dylesto @vickieito @nickkold

Just for clarity, I was being facetious when I said the 5,000 reviews thing. That's as absurd as Mike's unwillingness to find anyone else as "professional" as he is and how he disregards other people for being successful, speaking a different language, or being from a different country.

Of course, 5,000 reviews is a silly standard. But the fact remains that there are tons of professionals who don't have the "Pro" tag and far more TRS and L2 who make far more money than many Pros do. And while we can debate the merits of what a Pro is at the end of the day it all comes down to who is bringing the money to the table and providing high-quality work to match those standards. 

My flippant comment really was directed at Mike for the fact he was disregarding me when I've got more Fiverr success than even the top "1%" he touts so heavily. That's because he doesn't know who is and who isn't successful and his basis of "I've got a Pro Badge, I must be a big deal" doesn't fly. 

[vickieito]

1 hour ago, nickkold said:

I guess my point is, if they want to recruit people working in the field professionally - chances of getting them to use the site - are going to be much higher if they vet based on industry experience as well. The other method is gonna lower the chances a lot of recruiting that category of freelancers, I think.

1 hour ago, nickkold said:

If Fiverr is interested in this type of "Pro" at all

That's a great point @nickkold! And Fiverr is very interested in bringing on real professional talent, based on the new changes that we are seeing. I think I overlooked that Pro sellers also have to follow the leveled seller system, too - so they will also have that level badge as well.

34 minutes ago, levinewman said:

Of course, 5,000 reviews is a silly standard.

Thanks for clarifying that @levinewman! I almost had a heart attack when I saw that 5,000 number. I saw my chances for Pro flying out the window like a little birdie. 😂

Some sellers may be great at what they do and can hit the ground running like @nickkold mentioned, and it would be nice to have Fiverr's image elevated by adding more high-level professionals to the platform. There's still a stigma around Fiverr's image of only being a place for side hustles and $5 gigs. I have buyers who don't want to leave reviews (or add their deliveries to my galleries) because they don't want people to know that they are coming to Fiverr for services. I would love for people's perception of Fiverr to change.

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by vickieito
I used the word "great" three times and had to change that!

[smashradio]

12 hours ago, newsmike said:

Something has changed in the algorithm, as instead of the usual potpourri of seller levels on page 1, right now in VO, every single seller is TRS or PRO, with 2 exceptions, both of whom are L2.  Encouraging.  

I saw the same thing when searching for VOs. TRS and Pro for the most part. Very interesting. 

[levinewman]

1 minute ago, vickieito said:

There's still a stigma around Fiverr's image of only being a place for side hustles and $5 gigs. I have buyers who don't want to leave reviews (or add their deliveries to my galleries) because they don't want people to know that they are coming to Fiverr for services. It would be great for people's perception of Fiverr to change.

 

I'll make sure to bring this up to Micha during our meeting next week because I agree in many ways!

[nickkold]

11 minutes ago, vickieito said:

There's still a stigma around Fiverr's image of only being a place for side hustles and $5 gigs. I have buyers who don't want to leave reviews (or add their deliveries to my galleries) because they don't want people to know that they are coming to Fiverr for services. I would love for people's perception of Fiverr to change.

 

I agree with this as well! Great point. I was about to mention this in my previous message actually. I've had the same thing happen to me. Especially agencies want to keep this on the low.

Edited July 6, 2023 by nickkold

[newsmike]

4 minutes ago, nickkold said:

I agree with this as well! Great point. I was about to mention this in my previous message actually. I've had the same thing happen to me. Especially agencies want to keep this on the low.

Absolutely true. It makes you wonder why they decided to lower the bar for PRO status, which seems a move in the wrong direction.  But I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. 

[levinewman]

18 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Absolutely true. It makes you wonder why they decided to lower the bar for PRO status, which seems a move in the wrong direction.  But I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. 

This is the kind of thing that I'm laughing at. You think of it as lowering the bar, however, I think of it as raising the bar. I've never once taken a pro seriously because I was here long before that system. So, it's all about perspective. But what do I know? I just reported a Pro seller for approaching me to resell my exact work at a higher price--when they claim they are a writer and sell the exact same gig. Oh, the irony of it all.

Edited July 6, 2023 by levinewman

[donnovan86]

35 minutes ago, smashradio said:

I saw the same thing when searching for VOs. TRS and Pro for the most part. Very interesting. 

In Articles and Blog Posts it has been like that for a while. Similar, I should say. They have a few level 1 and level 2 sellers at the top of search, then the next 40-60 people are just Pro. So yeah, PRO sellers are getting a lot of visibility, not sure what they will do with this new change, since Pro sellers already receive a LOT of traffic at least in my category anyway. But who knows. We have to wait and see.

[vickieito]

26 minutes ago, newsmike said:

It makes you wonder why they decided to lower the bar for PRO status

It is nice that vetted Pros can set their own prices, though. It would give them greater flexibility during market changes and when they are restructuring their gigs.

[newsmike]

9 minutes ago, vickieito said:

It is nice that vetted Pros can set their own prices, though. It would give them greater flexibility during market changes and when they are restructuring their gigs.

Interesting point, but I hope we don't see a day where we have PRO sellers at $5 like we have some TRS sellers now. I would expect that if we did, it would be from those who were simply awarded the status as opposed to having earned it through serious vetting. Someone who never even applied for PRO and just had it handed to them may be more likely to view it as a lark, and undercut the people who have been holding the price all along. 

Depending on how it goes, I may add some verbiage to my description explaining that I was an original PRO seller from back when there was actual vetting, and draw a distinction between the looser definition.  But need to see how bad it gets first. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by newsmike

[levinewman]

3 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Interesting point, but I hope we don't see a day where we have PRO sellers at $5 like we have some TRS sellers now. I would expect that if we did, it would be from those who were simply awarded the status as opposed to having earned it through serious vetting. Someone who never even applied for PRO and just had it handed to them may be more likely to view it as a lark, and undercut the people who have been holding the price all along. 

Depending on how it goes, I may add some verbiage to my description explaining that I was an original PRO seller from back when there was actual vetting, and draw a distinction between the looser definition.  But need to see how bad it gets first. 

I've made $1.4 million on Fiverr. How do I differentiate my professionalism from Mike's here? Can I get something beyond a Pro badge to show my faux superiority? I'm a TRS who got promoted to Pro without applying.

[smashradio]

27 minutes ago, levinewman said:

I've never once taken a pro seriously because I was here long before that system. 

I find this statement curious. I was here long before the Pro system, but that hasn't kept me from taking pro sellers seriously. Given that you're also a Pro seller yourself, I'm wondering if you phrased it like that for a reason, if you meant something different (like not taking a Pro seller seriously just because they're a Pro seller), or if you meant what you wrote word for word.