9 years of Fiverr, TRS for 7 years, bright future ahead?

[congruentgraph]

Hi there,

This is my story.

I've joined back in 2015 when the only gig price you could set was $5, hence the name Fiverr. I remember when they added the option to include Extras as a way to bump up your income as well as theirs and all the other changes since. I've been active this hole time and Fiverr has been my main source of income.

Fast forward to today when I have a wife, 2 kids, a house, 2 cars and a lot more responsibilities. I'm in the logo design industry that has a bit of experience and offers great quality, I only get up to 10 orders/month at a higher price. I've lowered my prices by 40% to remain competitive and have got more orders but at the same time my prices are about where they were in 2019 when all costs were 30-40% lower. (should also mention that taxes are way higher now) 

The new rating system will force all of us who want to stay in business here to lower our prices to get more volume of work to drown bad reviews as otherwise the only option is to get no orders as a result of bad reviews. My latest 2 orders went great: first one, the client was super happy, he even mentioned leaving a 5 star review and ended up giving me 4.7 (the value for money criteria...), the second order, different client, even happier, gave me a stellar review $50tip and a 4.2 rating. Now, how is that possible? I've got 1500+reviews and never had 2 with less than 5stars one after the other, in fact I have less than 7 reviews less than 5stars in 1500. This new metric will lower our income as well as fiverrs and will allow them to curate their platform with little to no effort. The big question is how much time will Fiverr accept lower turnovers. As a result at best I will be fluctuating between TRS and level 2 and occasionally level 1. The big question is this: Is there a future on fiverr for sellers who live in developed countries?

I am optimistic by nature but the way I see it, Fiverr want to make sure they retain ONLY the sellers who offer decent quality at very low costs. My assumption is that this is the right choice to make if you wish to integrate AI as a service provider later on. I'm convinced this is going to happen and that is is only a matter of time. 10 years from now there won't be much online freelancing left but time will tell.

Have a great day everyone!

and good luck!

 

[donnovan86]

9 minutes ago, congruentgraph said:

The new rating system will force all of us who want to stay in business here to lower our prices to get more volume of work to drown bad reviews as otherwise the only option is to get no orders as a result of bad review

That's not the case. Even with lower prices, you can still get bad reviews 🙂 

[congruentgraph]

Very, very true but the alternative is to wait for the algorithm to ignore you.

[donnovan86]

7 minutes ago, congruentgraph said:

Very, very true but the alternative is to wait for the algorithm to ignore you.

It's not the algorithm ignoring you. In general, the higher your price is, the less impressions and clicks you will have..

[congruentgraph]

Just now, donnovan86 said:

It's not the algorithm ignoring you. In general, the higher your price is, the less impressions and clicks you will have..

Are you happy on Fiverr? You've been here longer than I have, do you feel the past 2 years of changes have helped you grow on Fiverr?

[donnovan86]

1 minute ago, congruentgraph said:

Are you happy on Fiverr? You've been here longer than I have, do you feel the past 2 years of changes have helped you grow on Fiverr?

I have a problem with AI, not Fiverr. 

The platform is fine, and we're working here, we're not in charge. A lot of sellers here don't realize they are just that.. Sellers. They aren't running the company. Fiverr has access to data we don't, and they also have shareholders who have a say regarding the platform and its direction. I understand that, and my focus is on adapting based on what what changes arise. I see a lot of people complaining about the review system. I just try to do the best job, those from Fiverr that browse the forum know the general sentiment and yet there were no changes to the review system so.. 

[congruentgraph]

4 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I have a problem with AI, not Fiverr. 

The platform is fine, and we're working here, we're not in charge. A lot of sellers here don't realize they are just that.. Sellers. They aren't running the company. Fiverr has access to data we don't, and they also have shareholders who have a say regarding the platform and its direction. I understand that, and my focus is on adapting based on what what changes arise. I see a lot of people complaining about the review system. I just try to do the best job, those from Fiverr that browse the forum know the general sentiment and yet there were no changes to the review system so.. 

You are right. Sellers are workers and society has come up with a means of protection for them and they are called unions. Online sellers do not get that luxury. It's in any business's nature to get the most out of it's resources sellers and workers included.

The only way the new rating sistem will be changed is if it does a dent into their sales and it will. This does not change the fact that Ai will take over regardless. 

[donnovan86]

7 minutes ago, congruentgraph said:

it will

It won't. AI is the one to do that and it already affected a lot of niches. There will always be companies and people that never use AI. Those are our clients. The new review system doesn't affect buyers. So it won't affect sales. It's just a system meant to avoid the current situation where most active sellers are level 2 and a lot of them have 5 stars. It will affect those sellers that are extremely overpriced or don't offer good customer support. But I don't think it will affect Fiverr that much. Sure, some people might leave the platform, others will take their place though. So.. 

[sunboykylo]

1 hour ago, congruentgraph said:

Hi there,

This is my story.

I've joined back in 2015 when the only gig price you could set was $5, hence the name Fiverr. I remember when they added the option to include Extras as a way to bump up your income as well as theirs and all the other changes since. I've been active this hole time and Fiverr has been my main source of income.

Fast forward to today when I have a wife, 2 kids, a house, 2 cars and a lot more responsibilities. I'm in the logo design industry that has a bit of experience and offers great quality, I only get up to 10 orders/month at a higher price. I've lowered my prices by 40% to remain competitive and have got more orders but at the same time my prices are about where they were in 2019 when all costs were 30-40% lower. (should also mention that taxes are way higher now) 

The new rating system will force all of us who want to stay in business here to lower our prices to get more volume of work to drown bad reviews as otherwise the only option is to get no orders as a result of bad reviews. My latest 2 orders went great: first one, the client was super happy, he even mentioned leaving a 5 star review and ended up giving me 4.7 (the value for money criteria...), the second order, different client, even happier, gave me a stellar review $50tip and a 4.2 rating. Now, how is that possible? I've got 1500+reviews and never had 2 with less than 5stars one after the other, in fact I have less than 7 reviews less than 5stars in 1500. This new metric will lower our income as well as fiverrs and will allow them to curate their platform with little to no effort. The big question is how much time will Fiverr accept lower turnovers. As a result at best I will be fluctuating between TRS and level 2 and occasionally level 1. The big question is this: Is there a future on fiverr for sellers who live in developed countries?

I am optimistic by nature but the way I see it, Fiverr want to make sure they retain ONLY the sellers who offer decent quality at very low costs. My assumption is that this is the right choice to make if you wish to integrate AI as a service provider later on. I'm convinced this is going to happen and that is is only a matter of time. 10 years from now there won't be much online freelancing left but time will tell.

Have a great day everyone!

and good luck!

 

Champion 🏆

[grayprogrammerz]

3 hours ago, congruentgraph said:

The new rating system will force all of us who want to stay in business here to lower our prices to get more volume of work to drown bad reviews as otherwise the only option is to get no orders as a result of bad reviews.

I was wondering how it may affect competition, price and no. of orders ?
I mean all sellers will get hit the same way (as system changed for everyone equally).

So if you were degraded from 5 to 4 ratings, expect same for other sellers like 4 to 3, 3 to 2, 2 to 1 etc ?

So wouldn't it will be same ? except name of 5 changed to 4.x ?

[donnovan86]

2 hours ago, grayprogrammerz said:

So wouldn't it will be same ? except name of 5 changed to 4.x ?

What? 

 

[eclixo]

You're lucky to get TRS. I've been waiting for a TRS promotion despite being eligible for it for two years. I've come to accept that it may never happen, so I've decided to increase my gig price to match that of TRS. I prioritize quality over quantity.

[grayprogrammerz]

3 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

What?

I mean I guess scenario will be almost same as before. Only difference might be more 4.3,4.5,4.7 ratings instead of 5/5.