My view on the new levels and ratings (which no one asked for but thought I'd share anyway)

[williambryan392]

Firstly this is just my opinion, there is no incentive for me to share the below, Fiverr hasn't asked me to do this and given the way the community is responding I’m aware I could get some (a lot of) disagreement with this.

For context, I’m a TRS/Pro and have replaced my prior financial services/tech income using Fiverr. To be transparent I’m also a forum m0d, but please don’t think that means you can’t disagree with me. I’m not someone that hides posts, or blocks/warns people for disagreeing, only if someone is abusive/grossly unprofessional. Free speech is important so don’t be shy.

I have learned a lot from this community over the last few years, users like @imagination7413, @frank_d, @damooch916, @vickieito @breals @visualstudios @newsmike to name a few (I know I'm missing loads) have been awesome, and from time to time I’ve tried to contribute positively myself to help others. I also think it's great to see established sellers like @levinewman sharing their thoughts/concerns on these changes and also being heard by Fiverr. That doesn't mean they'll act on it, they don't owe us that, but at least they're listening.

 

Anyway, here we go…

 

I get why you’re annoyed. I would be too. Everything looked great on your profile, with lots of 5* ratings and buyers leaving great written reviews. Maybe you thought this new level system was going to get you to TRS (often seen as the holy grail of Fiverr success). 

Then BAM, you’re dropping a level or more when you thought everything was going great.

It's kind of like getting dumped by a partner when they told you they loved you the day before. The thing is, there were probably problems you weren't seeing. You feel discarded and unloved, but the only thing you can do is learn and change.

So I’ll say again, I would be annoyed/confused/frustrated/upset too. It’s a gut punch, and not expected. I have both empathy and sympathy for you. I mean that sincerely.

 

Now, I’m going to make some assumptions/(potentially obvious) statements…

 

Fiverr isn’t making up the data it's using. It has always been there, you just haven’t had visibility of it in the same way you do now, and it hasn’t been contributing to your overall score/level until now. 

 

Fiverr is fixing the bugs. Bugs do happen, it can be a 1 person startup or Google, and bugs still get through. I think Fiverr will want to know why as much as we do, that doesn’t mean they’ll tell us why, but they don’t want bugs any more than we do and will fix them.

 

Fiverr wants buyers to be happy. Stating the obvious, every seller knows this, but I think they saw a trend of buyers saying they were happy publicly when in fact they were less happy privately, and this was causing buyers to make the ‘wrong’ decision when picking a freelancer based on the public information. They tried to fix it with private reviews, and this is a further evolution of that.

 

Fiverr wants sellers to be happy (it may not feel like it right now). Like any marketplace, Fiverr is a 2 sided ecosystem, and there needs to be a symbiosis between the 2 sides. I do believe that fundamentally Fiverr wants sellers to be successful, because if they have successful sellers, they can have buyers who get what they want, and if both sides are happy, Fiverr makes money. However, most marketplaces prioritize buyers over sellers. Uber, doordash, airbnb, you name it. It’s necessary to maintain the ecosystem. It’s far cheaper to acquire a seller/provider than a buyer.

 

Algorithms are massively complicated. There are hundreds (thousands!?) of data points potentially now included, coupled maybe even with AI doing some analysis. We cannot expect every SM/CS agent/product owner/developer (or even the CEO himself!) to understand it entirely. Every account, with all its data points from all the various reviews (as well as profile setup, gig setup, everything) makes every seller account unique. This means it’s almost impossible for someone at Fiverr to give you 100% concrete feedback on why something is the way it is.

 

I’m NOT saying everything is perfect, and I want to provide a balanced view so to be transparent I will share the things that concern me, and also show I'm not a Fiverr shill...

 

Cancellations shouldn’t automatically be considered a fail. I once had a buyer spend 4 figures on a business plan, and when I met with him it was clear that he didn’t in fact need a business plan (I won’t go into detail on why) but I don’t want to sell things people don’t need, and so we agreed to cancel. He was thrilled and went on and spent money with other sellers who could give him what he did need. Support did amend my OCR when I explained why, but this could have still privately impacted me which I don’t think is right. Buyers make mistakes ordering, they change their minds, and stuff happens. Sellers shouldn’t be penalized for giving a buyer a good experience by canceling.

 

Revisions are part of the creative process. The healthy way to view revisions is that it’s an opportunity to get the work to the best possible standard according to the buyer's expectations and your ability. I don’t think revisions in themselves should penalize the seller, it shouldn’t be automatically classed as conflict, but obviously, there’s a line, and sometimes excessive revisions are because the seller has overpromised and massively underdelivered. I once had a pitch deck go through 15 rounds because the buyer changed practically everything, the name, the logo, the colour scheme, the market, the product/service. You name it, they changed it and it ended up being an entirely different business. I think I overdelivered, but this probably counted against me.

 

Response time can be brutal to maintain. I know the feeling of wanting to reply quickly, you want to close the sale, and it’s important buyers get a timely reply so I understand why it’s judged by Fiverr. This pressure gave me burnout, and I actually started to actively reply slower. This meant I avoided getting into back-and-forth conversations. I used to be at 1 hour response time for my first year, and I was most recently at 3 hours (I focused on it for the last couple of months once I got my energy back), but for the second half of last year I was at 6 hours, and in December it hit 10 hours. This January was still my best month for revenue. My point is don’t overly sweat it, I think decent buyers know you have other clients & commitments, and good buyers understand waiting for a few (or more) hours for good sellers. With so many data points it’s now become less important overall.

 

The rating and review form is complicated. I’ve had buyers message saying it’s confusing, it’s time-consuming, or even apologizing as that was not the review they wanted to leave when I asked what I could have done better. Note I’m not asking them to change it (that’s not allowed), I just ask if they have any pointers on how I could have done more to help, especially when they've already decided to work with me further. They say nothing, it was great. They could be lying, but given I work with all my buyers on Zoom I think I know them reasonably well enough to judge if they're being disingenuous, and they buy again, and they tip me. The ratings/emojis should be linear IMO, and I think the value for money is a bit of a flawed concept. I also don't like professional work being judged by emojis, but it's not my platform, it's Fiverr's.

 

Promoted gig inbox message/follow-up message feature. Promoted gigs have helped me get sales, but promoted inbox messages have instead led to questions and even anger. ‘Why did you message me’, ‘this is spam’, ‘leave me alone’. I have to explain it’s not me, but Fiverr. This means I’ve avoided promoting my gigs that cost more and just left the cheaper CPC ones promoting.

 

Order page auto messages to fill in requirements ( @mandyzines lol), or join consultation calls. I find these automated messages to not be well structured, or overly polite. They’re very blunt, and I would rather control the messaging to my buyers myself rather than rely on automated messages. It makes me wonder what the promoted gig message says.

 

The consultation feature needs a buffer. This is to prevent back-to-back calls which ultimately means a call either starts late or finishes early, which no buyer wants.

 

Fiverr communication. With hindsight, I think more could have been done to prepare the community for the inevitable level drops (assuming Fiverr crunched the numbers for the impact beforehand), but maybe they didn’t expect it. The communication needs to be aligned as we are receiving some mixed messages. I also think it’s unreasonable for us to expect @Kesha to respond to everyone. That’s what support or your SM is for, but as per my earlier algo point, they can only know, or indeed share so much. Communication also goes both ways and beating down on Fiverr staff is never going to get you what you want. I think it can also undermine valid feedback, so be constructive. It’s easy to be a keyboard warrior, and I think you should only say on the internet what you’d say to someone's face.

 

Buyer ratings. There needs to be a better way to rate buyers. Seller insights feature was a great step and very helpful. But still, I'm a coward, and rate every buyer as 'Great Buyer' because if I say anything else they could burn me with the private review out of spite.

 

So, I want to leave you, my fellow sellers, with these sentiments…

• This is a one-month transition, let's watch this space...
• Fiverr does want you to be successful because if you’re not then they won’t be either.
• I believe this change was done to make things better, not worse.
• It might not seem like it, but they will be listening (but that doesn't mean they'll implement what you want).
• You built success before on Fiverr when so many others tried and failed.
• You learned what it took to get great feedback and keep clients happy with the old system. 
• You can learn how to be successful with the new system.
• You’re great at what you do? That means you’re capable, and you can do this. 
• The game is still the same, but the rules have been updated.
• You don’t need to be level whatever to make money. I know a level 2 doing 5 figures a month, and a TRS doing 3 figures a month.
• Remember the person, whether they are Fiverr staff, or your fellow buyers and sellers (or me as you respond to this!).

 

I'll say again I think it's great the community is giving feedback, that the forum is active and people are sharing and learning from each other. I mean it and I stated at the start that free speech is important.

 

Perhaps above all remember you don’t work for Fiverr, you work on Fiverr, so make Fiverr work for you. Treat it as a business, adapt to the market, and of course don’t rely on one customer/platform/revenue stream to put food on the table. Evolve or die, that's the brutal truth, and it's true of however or wherever you make your income. You never know what's around the corner.

 

Just my overly long 2 cents, and if I'm a level 0 in a month I might be making a dramatically different post, but I'll also be thinking what I can do to improve, to add value, and to grow again.

 

Feel free to beat me up, venting is healthy!

[j_c_consulting]

Big fan of this and 100% agree with the points.

[mariashtelle1]

45 minutes ago, williambryan392 said:

Feel free to beat me up, venting is healthy!

Oh, a free offer of a punching bag 😁 that doesn’t happen that often 

 

This system can work well for the future but what fiverr shouldn’t have done is to apply rules retroactively.
They can’t say for example “we expect you to behave like a monkey” but then judge you as “now rules changed and I will evaluate your last 2 years as a fish” 

45 minutes ago, williambryan392 said:

Evolve or die, that's the brutal truth

This 👆 👏

Edited February 21 by mariashtelle1

[williambryan392]

17 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

This system can work well for the future but what fiverr shouldn’t have done is to apply rules retroactively.

I get you. I suppose the problem would be that there are so many sellers with thousands or even tens of thousands of reviews that it would take too long for the new system to effectively balance sellers out, thereby disadvantaging newer sellers.

19 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Oh, a free offer of a punching bag 😁 that doesn’t happen that often 

 

You know where I am! 😆

[mariashtelle1]

11 minutes ago, williambryan392 said:

I suppose the problem would be that there are so many sellers with thousands or even tens of thousands of reviews

But the solution is simple:that’s  why they should just start “clean” and get new ratings for everyone. Keep old reviews but the success score etc start counting from the certain date of the launch and give one month grace period for getting new reviews and scores. 
But what’s done that’s done. We will just have to adapt. 

[williambryan392]

3 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

But the solution is simple:that’s  why they should just start “clean” and get new ratings for everyone. Keep old reviews but the success score etc start counting from the certain date of the launch and give one month grace period for getting new reviews and scores. 
But what’s done that’s done. We will just have to adapt. 

Good point well made. Doing it retroactively (and based on 2 years) means it's hard to shift the needle let alone in just 30 days.

 

6 minutes ago, kaneswriting said:

Fiverr is a business and platform. They can run it however they want.

Yep, agree, it's their house, and I do think the decisions they make are data-led. I don't think they are making these decisions out of an emotional response.

 

 

[dereck_s]

1 hour ago, williambryan392 said:

Firstly this is just my opinion, there is no incentive for me to share the below, Fiverr hasn't asked me to do this and given the way the community is responding I’m aware I could get some (a lot of) disagreement with this.

For context, I’m a TRS/Pro and have replaced my prior financial services/tech income using Fiverr. To be transparent I’m also a forum mod, but please don’t think that means you can’t disagree with me. I’m not someone that hides posts, or blocks/warns people for disagreeing, only if someone is abusive/grossly unprofessional. Free speech is important so don’t be shy.

I have learned a lot from this community over the last few years, users like @imagination7413, @frank_d, @damooch916, @vickieito @breals @visualstudios @newsmike to name a few (I know I'm missing loads) have been awesome, and from time to time I’ve tried to contribute positively myself to help others. I also think it's great to see established sellers like @levinewman sharing their thoughts/concerns on these changes and also being heard by Fiverr. That doesn't mean they'll act on it, they don't owe us that, but at least they're listening.

 

Anyway, here we go…

 

I get why you’re annoyed. I would be too. Everything looked great on your profile, with lots of 5* ratings and buyers leaving great written reviews. Maybe you thought this new level system was going to get you to TRS (often seen as the holy grail of Fiverr success). 

Then BAM, you’re dropping a level or more when you thought everything was going great.

It's kind of like getting dumped by a partner when they told you they loved you the day before. The thing is, there were probably problems you weren't seeing. You feel discarded and unloved, but the only thing you can do is learn and change.

So I’ll say again, I would be annoyed/confused/frustrated/upset too. It’s a gut punch, and not expected. I have both empathy and sympathy for you. I mean that sincerely.

 

Now, I’m going to make some assumptions/(potentially obvious) statements…

 

Fiverr isn’t making up the data it's using. It has always been there, you just haven’t had visibility of it in the same way you do now, and it hasn’t been contributing to your overall score/level until now. 

 

Fiverr is fixing the bugs. Bugs do happen, it can be a 1 person startup or Google, and bugs still get through. I think Fiverr will want to know why as much as we do, that doesn’t mean they’ll tell us why, but they don’t want bugs any more than we do and will fix them.

 

Fiverr wants buyers to be happy. Stating the obvious, every seller knows this, but I think they saw a trend of buyers saying they were happy publicly when in fact they were less happy privately, and this was causing buyers to make the ‘wrong’ decision when picking a freelancer based on the public information. They tried to fix it with private reviews, and this is a further evolution of that.

 

Fiverr wants sellers to be happy (it may not feel like it right now). Like any marketplace, Fiverr is a 2 sided ecosystem, and there needs to be a symbiosis between the 2 sides. I do believe that fundamentally Fiverr wants sellers to be successful, because if they have successful sellers, they can have buyers who get what they want, and if both sides are happy, Fiverr makes money. However, most marketplaces prioritize buyers over sellers. Uber, doordash, airbnb, you name it. It’s necessary to maintain the ecosystem. It’s far cheaper to acquire a seller/provider than a buyer.

 

Algorithms are massively complicated. There are hundreds (thousands!?) of data points potentially now included, coupled maybe even with AI doing some analysis. We cannot expect every SM/CS agent/product owner/developer (or even the CEO himself!) to understand it entirely. Every account, with all its data points from all the various reviews (as well as profile setup, gig setup, everything) makes every seller account unique. This means it’s almost impossible for someone at Fiverr to give you 100% concrete feedback on why something is the way it is.

 

I’m NOT saying everything is perfect, and I want to provide a balanced view so to be transparent I will share the things that concern me, and also show I'm not a Fiverr shill...

 

Cancellations shouldn’t automatically be considered a fail. I once had a buyer spend 4 figures on a business plan, and when I met with him it was clear that he didn’t in fact need a business plan (I won’t go into detail on why) but I don’t want to sell things people don’t need, and so we agreed to cancel. He was thrilled and went on and spent money with other sellers who could give him what he did need. Support did amend my OCR when I explained why, but this could have still privately impacted me which I don’t think is right. Buyers make mistakes ordering, they change their minds, and stuff happens. Sellers shouldn’t be penalized for giving a buyer a good experience by canceling.

 

Revisions are part of the creative process. The healthy way to view revisions is that it’s an opportunity to get the work to the best possible standard according to the buyer's expectations and your ability. I don’t think revisions in themselves should penalize the seller, it shouldn’t be automatically classed as conflict, but obviously, there’s a line, and sometimes excessive revisions are because the seller has overpromised and massively underdelivered. I once had a pitch deck go through 15 rounds because the buyer changed practically everything, the name, the logo, the colour scheme, the market, the product/service. You name it, they changed it and it ended up being an entirely different business. I think I overdelivered, but this probably counted against me.

 

Response time can be brutal to maintain. I know the feeling of wanting to reply quickly, you want to close the sale, and it’s important buyers get a timely reply so I understand why it’s judged by Fiverr. This pressure gave me burnout, and I actually started to actively reply slower. This meant I avoided getting into back-and-forth conversations. I used to be at 1 hour response time for my first year, and I was most recently at 3 hours (I focused on it for the last couple of months once I got my energy back), but for the second half of last year I was at 6 hours, and in December it hit 10 hours. This January was still my best month for revenue. My point is don’t overly sweat it, I think decent buyers know you have other clients & commitments, and good buyers understand waiting for a few (or more) hours for good sellers. With so many data points it’s now become less important overall.

 

The rating and review form is complicated. I’ve had buyers message saying it’s confusing, it’s time-consuming, or even apologizing as that was not the review they wanted to leave when I asked what I could have done better. Note I’m not asking them to change it (that’s not allowed), I just ask if they have any pointers on how I could have done more to help, especially when they've already decided to work with me further. They say nothing, it was great. They could be lying, but given I work with all my buyers on Zoom I think I know them reasonably well enough to judge if they're being disingenuous, and they buy again, and they tip me. The ratings/emojis should be linear IMO, and I think the value for money is a bit of a flawed concept. I also don't like professional work being judged by emojis, but it's not my platform, it's Fiverr's.

 

Promoted gig inbox message/follow-up message feature. Promoted gigs have helped me get sales, but promoted inbox messages have instead led to questions and even anger. ‘Why did you message me’, ‘this is spam’, ‘leave me alone’. I have to explain it’s not me, but Fiverr. This means I’ve avoided promoting my gigs that cost more and just left the cheaper CPC ones promoting.

 

Order page auto messages to fill in requirements ( @mandyzines lol), or join consultation calls. I find these automated messages to not be well structured, or overly polite. They’re very blunt, and I would rather control the messaging to my buyers myself rather than rely on automated messages. It makes me wonder what the promoted gig message says.

 

The consultation feature needs a buffer. This is to prevent back-to-back calls which ultimately means a call either starts late or finishes early, which no buyer wants.

 

Fiverr communication. With hindsight, I think more could have been done to prepare the community for the inevitable level drops (assuming Fiverr crunched the numbers for the impact beforehand), but maybe they didn’t expect it. The communication needs to be aligned as we are receiving some mixed messages. I also think it’s unreasonable for us to expect @Kesha to respond to everyone. That’s what support or your SM is for, but as per my earlier algo point, they can only know, or indeed share so much. Communication also goes both ways and beating down on Fiverr staff is never going to get you what you want. I think it can also undermine valid feedback, so be constructive. It’s easy to be a keyboard warrior, and I think you should only say on the internet what you’d say to someone's face.

 

Buyer ratings. There needs to be a better way to rate buyers. Seller insights feature was a great step and very helpful. But still, I'm a coward, and rate every buyer as 'Great Buyer' because if I say anything else they could burn me with the private review out of spite.

 

So, I want to leave you, my fellow sellers, with these sentiments…

• This is a one-month transition, let's watch this space...
• Fiverr does want you to be successful because if you’re not then they won’t be either.
• I believe this change was done to make things better, not worse.
• It might not seem like it, but they will be listening (but that doesn't mean they'll implement what you want).
• You built success before on Fiverr when so many others tried and failed.
• You learned what it took to get great feedback and keep clients happy with the old system. 
• You can learn how to be successful with the new system.
• You’re great at what you do? That means you’re capable, and you can do this. 
• The game is still the same, but the rules have been updated.
• You don’t need to be level whatever to make money. I know a level 2 doing 5 figures a month, and a TRS doing 3 figures a month.
• Remember the person, whether they are Fiverr staff, or your fellow buyers and sellers (or me as you respond to this!).

 

I'll say again I think it's great the community is giving feedback, that the forum is active and people are sharing and learning from each other. I mean it and I stated at the start that free speech is important.

 

Perhaps above all remember you don’t work for Fiverr, you work on Fiverr, so make Fiverr work for you. Treat it as a business, adapt to the market, and of course don’t rely on one customer/platform/revenue stream to put food on the table. Evolve or die, that's the brutal truth, and it's true of however or wherever you make your income. You never know what's around the corner.

 

Just my overly long 2 cents, and if I'm a level 0 in a month I might be making a dramatically different post, but I'll also be thinking what I can do to improve, to add value, and to grow again.

 

Feel free to beat me up, venting is healthy!

A little about me, level 2 seller here since 2010 that has had met the metrics for TRS for years but never applied, didn't seem to matter much to me in terms of getting work. I'm one of the people that's about to lose everything. Worse than that the only metric I know that's causing my success score to be a 4 is my cancellations that happened to me as a result of what I can only think of as some type of spam ...scam. Essentially I woke up to 30+ cancellations on my account all done before the information was entered so I had zero say or control.

 

I also reached out to CS and my SM to confirm that all cancellations effect your score and even more over it has a larger impact on gigs with more orders. 

My take / 2 cents for all its worth.

1: Cancellations shouldn't effect you at all if done mutually or at no fault to you. 

2: Private reviews shouldn't affect you unless verified by a staff member that you offered poor service. My real thoughts are that you should also get a chance to defend yourself but I'm not sure how you would while keeping the private review private. Maybe their shouldn't be both public and private reviews?

Edited February 21 by dereck_s
typo

[williambryan392]

4 minutes ago, emmaki said:

I disagree. This is Fiverr listening to its sellers. 

Fair enough! I would counter that just because they're not replying to everyone here, or changing what they're doing (at least yet) that doesn't mean they're not aware of and paying attention to this (listening). 

26 minutes ago, dereck_s said:

I'm one of the people that's about to lose everything

And this is where I have massive sympathy, it's truly sad to read this. I don't relish anyone having a bad/hard time. You've been here since 2010, you're literally an OG Fiverr seller!

[emmaki]

Oh, I was being flippant - I'll write more seriously later 🙂

I was actually looking for one of my favorite videos that I can never find when I want to use it. You'd think I'd save it, but I'm not built like that. 

[williambryan392]

27 minutes ago, dereck_s said:

even say in the message that they won't "impact your stats as a seller

That hit me too. I think they are working on that according to an acknowledgment they made on the main post/thread.

27 minutes ago, dereck_s said:

revisions affect you negatively, extending deliveries affect you negatively, getting a cancelation whether it's your fault or not will affect you negatively

Massive agree with you on this. I don't these should be automatic negatives.

Edited February 21 by williambryan392
typo

[emmaki]

are you trying to tell us something in very heavy code, William? 

[tatjanamitevska]

The main issue with Fiverr is and will remain the quality of clients. 

I have an amazing service ( one of the many) offering strategies that I can price 2000$ or more and I work with a lot of B2B companies. Is amazing, clients have a real budget, they have marketing team ready to implement the strategy, I can get on a call and coach the team, help with recruitment etc.. They are very happy with the service, I get paid my hourly rate of around 100$/hour and enjoy working on their projects. That's just 0.0001% of clients, unfortunately. 

I am afraid however this new changes will push highly qualified freelancers out of the platform. I understand the reason why, and this is why after couple of not so good experiences as a buyer I decided to never buy on Fiverr. The rules are made for the sellers who:

- cancelled orders to polish their ratings

- offered cheap services so the buyer didn't felt like leaving a negative review in public and left one in private 

However the rules apply to all of us and is just too much. 

Fiverr has been trying to recruit Western European and American freelancers for years now to build credibility but the high-paying clients are just not there, this new system will not help with that. 

I am TRS and SS of 10, it doesn't matter honestly. 

 

[visualstudios]

1 hour ago, tatjanamitevska said:

The main issue with Fiverr is and will remain the quality of clients. 

I have an amazing service ( one of the many) offering strategies that I can price 2000$ or more and I work with a lot of B2B companies. Is amazing, clients have a real budget, they have marketing team ready to implement the strategy, I can get on a call and coach the team, help with recruitment etc.. They are very happy with the service, I get paid my hourly rate of around 100$/hour and enjoy working on their projects. That's just 0.0001% of clients, unfortunately. 

I am afraid however this new changes will push highly qualified freelancers out of the platform. I understand the reason why, and this is why after couple of not so good experiences as a buyer I decided to never buy on Fiverr. The rules are made for the sellers who:

- cancelled orders to polish their ratings

- offered cheap services so the buyer didn't felt like leaving a negative review in public and left one in private 

However the rules apply to all of us and is just too much. 

Fiverr has been trying to recruit Western European and American freelancers for years now to build credibility but the high-paying clients are just not there, this new system will not help with that. 

I am TRS and SS of 10, it doesn't matter honestly. 

100% subscribed, this could have been written by me. It's exactly the problem I have with this system, even if it's not affecting me at all at the moment - Fiverr treats all sellers the same way - with constant mistrust.

-Doesn't matter if they sell for $5 or $5000

-Doesn't matter if they are a new seller or TRS

-Doesn't matter if they cancel orders to fix problems or have no cancelations for over a year.

It's tiring to be treated with permanent suspicion. Fiverr needs to clean the platform, but this is just not the right way to do it.

[tatjanamitevska]

Just I we speak... I had a paid call with a potential client. Not a consultation, just paid call to discuss their project requirements. 

Is a company, I spoke with the owner I got paid my consultation fee, no time spent in preparation. 

I get inquiries from a lot of "companies" with 2 page project requirements listed + the usual "Can you do a call"? 

My response is "Sure , you can book the option on my profile" and they go from 01 -> 100 absolutely angry that I dare to charge so they can speak with me.  Serious..? If you don't have the budget for a 100$ call, you sure don't have the budget for the full project with costs starting from 1500$. (*these are the same clients who rate 4 the "value for money", I will call them "value for money" clients from now. 

 

Edited February 21 by tatjanamitevska

[williambryan392]

4 minutes ago, tatjanamitevska said:

I get contacted by a lot of "companies" with 2 page project requirements listed + the usual "Can you do a call"? 

 

Yep I get that too! Frustrating. Or 'I need a free call to see if I want to pay for a call'. Hmmmm, no thank you.

[visualstudios]

On the other hand, I had someone book a call the other day (since calls can't be RTO, like the rest of the gigs - WHY), and that made me have to work with them, pretty much.

When someone pays for a call, if I find during the call I'm not a good fit for them, or they don't want to pay my prices, what can I do? Tell them no? And get screwed on the call review? It's extremely dangerous.

[tatjanamitevska]

2 minutes ago, williambryan392 said:

Yep I get that too! Frustrating. Or 'I need a free call to see if I want to pay for a call'. Hmmmm, no thank you.

I can write a book about selling on Fiverr, however there is one and only one thing that everyone should master when it comes to selling here: project requirements!!

Make the buyer do their part of the project. I have 15 to 20 questions in my brief and you need to answer all of them, if you answer "n/a", "I don't know", "not sure" I will message you asking kindly to answer those questions. If you are unresponsive, I will reach out to consumer support to contact you on my behalf. I extend delivery time if you fail to provide them in time. I hold clients responsible for the success of the project. 

Lucky me, 99% of my clients are great and they respect my professional bounders. 

[williambryan392]

2 minutes ago, tatjanamitevska said:

can write a book about selling on Fiverr, however there is one and only one thing that everyone should master when it comes to selling here: project requirements!!

Make the buyer do their part of the project. I have 15 to 20 questions in my brief and you need to answer all of them, if you answer "n/a", "I don't know", "not sure" I will message you asking kindly to answer those questions. If you are unresponsive, I will reach out to consumer support to contact you on my behalf. I extend delivery time if you fail to provide them in time. I hold clients responsible for the success of the project. 

Lucky me, 99% of my clients are great and they respect my professional bounders. 

I think we have very similar methodologies! Like you 99% of my clients are great, and I think a huge part of that is the pricing.

[carminesannino]

5 hours ago, williambryan392 said:

Innanzitutto questa è solo la mia opinione, non c'è alcun incentivo per me a condividere quanto segue, Fiverr non mi ha chiesto di farlo e visto il modo in cui la community sta rispondendo, sono consapevole che potrei avere qualche (molto) disaccordo con Questo.

Per contestualizzare, sono un TRS/Pro e ho sostituito i miei precedenti guadagni derivanti da servizi finanziari/tecnologici utilizzando Fiverr. Per essere trasparenti sono anche un forum m0d, ma per favore non pensare che questo significhi non poter essere in disaccordo con me. Non sono il tipo che nasconde i post o blocca/avvisa le persone in disaccordo, solo se qualcuno è offensivo/grossolanamente poco professionale. La libertà di parola è importante quindi non essere timido.

Ho imparato molto da questa community negli ultimi anni, piace agli utenti@immaginazione7413,@frank_d,@damooch916,@vickieito @breals @visualstudios @newsmike per citarne alcuni (so che mi mancano un sacco) sono stati fantastici e di tanto in tanto ho cercato di contribuire positivamente per aiutare gli altri. Penso anche che sia bello vedere venditori affermati come@levinewman condividere i loro pensieri/preoccupazioni su questi cambiamenti e anche essere ascoltati da Fiverr. Ciò non significa che agiranno di conseguenza, non ce lo devono, ma almeno stanno ascoltando.

The revisions, and the fact that I have many Italian customers, may have had an impact on my current score, which I find really unreasonable. In the meantime, I will lose my Level 2 (I was also Top Rated for almost 3 years previously) and go to 0. Furthermore, my metrics are also commensurate with profiles run, ostensibly by individual professionals, but which are actually agencies, shouldn't this be considered unfair competition? They are not even transparent with buyers in this way.

[williambryan392]

3 minutes ago, carminesannino said:

In the meantime, I will lose my Level 2 (I was also Top Rated for almost 3 years previously) and go to 0. Furthermore, my metrics are also commensurate with profiles run, ostensibly by individual professionals, but which are actually agencies, shouldn't this be considered unfair competition?

So this definitely doesn't make sense to me, how you can be the quality of a TRS, and then go to 0. Scratching my head!

Also, re the people that are in fact agencies, I recall it being a requirement that you have to be clear if you use a team, but like you I see a number of sellers not doing this. I'm also concerned being compared to people that are in fact agencies!

[carminesannino]

2 minutes ago, williambryan392 said:

So this definitely doesn't make sense to me, how you can be the quality of a TRS, and then go to 0. Scratching my head!

Also, re the people that are in fact agencies, I recall it being a requirement that you have to be clear if you use a team, but like you I see a number of sellers not doing this. I'm also concerned being compared to people that are in fact agencies!

I do not want to pursue conspiracy theories, but in the period from March to April 2023, I received several orders in which the requests were confusing and the customers did not respond. When they did deliver, they replied with a revision request, leaving no meaningful comment. I read a few days ago that this method was used towards other sellers. Honestly, I would like the support to listen to me, I am one of the few designers in that category who has skills, talent, I went to the academy of fine arts. I find everything accauded to me out of touch with reality

[visualstudios]

1 hour ago, williambryan392 said:

Also, re the people that are in fact agencies, I recall it being a requirement that you have to be clear if you use a team, but like you I see a number of sellers not doing this. I'm also concerned being compared to people that are in fact agencies!

I'm an agency, I've been asking to be an agency, officially, for the longest time, to have multiple member accounts, etc. and I don't have that option. I make it clear we are two people in my profile, gigs, etc., if my account isn't presented differently from a personal account it's Fiverr's fault, not mine. I'd love to be able to present as an agency.

[newsmike]

@williambryan392  Very eloquently stated, and really on point analysis. As I read through two thoughts jumped to the front of my mind.

How much of this anger not only over the fix, but in how badly the system is broken in the first place is because of Fiverr's lack of transparency. It has never sat well with me that despite the fact that I pay Fiverr in at least 3 different ways (commission, SP and PG) that there is data specifically reflecting my work and my business, which is being withheld...and for no good reason.  These are not nuclear secrets, they are business insights, which we pay to aggregate, but are, as @visualstudios suggests, kept at arm's length when it comes to trust, transparency and access to vital data which could help our businesses. Who has had their SM say, "Yes, there is an issue, but I can't tell you what the problem is?"  Then why bother.  That's like an argument with a spouse where one says, "I shouldn't have to tell you what's wrong, you should just know."

The second point is that Fiverr always seems to focus on fixing the 935th most important problem they have. As in this rework of ratings, is this a worse problem that the telegram scams, the contact me offsite scams, the "English Fluent" scams, the verify your account with a credit card scams and the thousands of others who give Fiverr it's public black eye? They continue to turn a blind eye to entire legions of scammers who fake every aspect of their profiles. The sellers who plagiarize, use fake profile pics, VPN's and ChatGPT to deliver their "expart" services, all while claiming fluency in 12 languages.  It literally seems as if Fiverr wants to continue to run their nice fancy restaurant, never noticing the meth lab in the kitchen. 

[tatjanamitevska]

Quote

English Fluent" scams, the verify your account with a credit card scams and the thousands of others who give Fiverr it's public black eye? They continue to turn a blind eye to entire legions of scammers who fake every aspect of their profiles. The sellers who plagiarize, use fake profile pics, VPN's and ChatGPT to deliver their "expart" services, all while claiming fluency in 12 languages.  It literally seems as if Fiverr wants to continue to run their nice fancy restaurant, never noticing the meth lab in the kitchen. 

I have reported 100s of fake profiles and they are still here. Apparently everyone on this marketplace is called James Henderson,  John Ross and similar and is from the UK hahahahha. I feel bad for the buyers, they think they are working with some 25 year old British girl named Sofia. 

There was once and I am not joking😂 and this services was Fiverr's choice but this person presented itself as Eva with a profile picture of MISS INDIA 2019😂. Maybe miss india was fixing bugs on shopify websites, maybe 😂

[graveyardshiftx]

On 2/21/2024 at 12:59 PM, tatjanamitevska said:

Just I we speak... I had a paid call with a potential client. Not a consultation, just paid call to discuss their project requirements. 

Is a company, I spoke with the owner I got paid my consultation fee, no time spent in preparation. 

I get inquiries from a lot of "companies" with 2 page project requirements listed + the usual "Can you do a call"? 

My response is "Sure , you can book the option on my profile" and they go from 01 -> 100 absolutely angry that I dare to charge so they can speak with me.  Serious..? If you don't have the budget for a 100$ call, you sure don't have the budget for the full project with costs starting from 1500$. (*these are the same clients who rate 4 the "value for money", I will call them "value for money" clients from now. 

 

This. Exactly this! I'm in web development (TRS too) and the requests I get lately are simply ridiculous. The other day, a client got mad at me because I refuse to load 45,787 products (not a typo, they have warehouses) on the ecommerce website I am building them, even though it's clearly stated in my gig and the working brief I sent them at the beginning.

I have built them a fantastic website on a limited budget, packed with all the custom made features they wanted because the web dev gig is still new and I am trying to garner good feedback (underpromise, overdeliver and all that!). But under this new review system, I already know for a fact that they'll say I'm not "value for money", all because I refuse to work for free.

I'm all for "evolve or die", but this new system looks more like "show your belly or die".

I have nothing against fair and constructive criticism. Emphasize on FAIR >: (