Time for some reflection and planning ✨

[Kesha]

As we gear up for the second quarter next week, whether you smashed your Q1 goals or stumbled a bit, it’s time to hit refresh and set some Q2 goals on a clean slate. Fill in the following blanks to help you reflect and plan for a rockstar second quarter. 

My greatest accomplishment/highlight in Q1 was: ____________________.
The thing I’m most grateful in Q1 for is: ____________________________.
In Q2, I would like to improve  _____________________. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish ____________ in my professional life. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish ____________ in my personal life.

Don’t forget to save your responses so you can periodically check in and keep yourself on track.

[emmaki]

Could we get Fiverr's version of that? 😈

[smashradio]

My greatest accomplishment/highlight in Q1 was: Investing more in my business outside of Fiverr. 
The thing I’m most grateful in Q1 for is: My wonderful son. 
In Q2, I would like to improve my business efforts outside of Fiverr even more, to improve resilience against anyone who works from a bean bag. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish a planned platform switch for the newspaper that I own and operate, and see an increase in revenue of at least 20%. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish my plan for increased personal resilicence. Oh, and I'm starting on the carnivore diet!

 

[emmaki]

1 hour ago, smashradio said:

Oh, and I'm starting on the carnivore diet!

You monster!

I couldn't find a good meat is m*rder GIF, but I did find this awesome Hitch GIF: 

However, sometimes meat may fight back: 



I also eat delicious meat. #sorrynotsorry about OT

Edited March 27 by emmaki
Don't eat birds.

[texvox]

6 hours ago, Kesha said:

As we gear up for the second quarter next week, whether you smashed your Q1 goals or stumbled a bit, it’s time to hit refresh and set some Q2 goals on a clean slate. Fill in the following blanks to help you reflect and plan for a rockstar second quarter. 

My greatest accomplishment/highlight in Q1 was: ____________________.
The thing I’m most grateful in Q1 for is: ____________________________.
In Q2, I would like to improve  _____________________. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish ____________ in my professional life. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish ____________ in my personal life.

Don’t forget to save your responses so you can periodically check in and keep yourself on track.

My greatest accomplishment/highlight in Q1 was: greatly expanding my direct business outside of various platforms. Platforms are a great tool to have in the belt, but it's unpredictable and unwise to rely on them too heavily, and it felt nice to create some more "breathing room" in my business by continuing to diversify my sources.

The thing I'm most grateful for in Q1 is: bouncing back closer to my average monthly earnings here on Fiverr after using "Vacation Mode" for 10 days in November literally nuked my gig (went from averaging $14k/mo and 25k impressions/week with a $17k peak in October to $2k and 1k impressions/week in November, $6k and 1.5k impressions/week in December). Getting back much closer to my old numbers which is great. I won't be using Vacation Mode ever again here on Fiverr. 

In Q2, I would like to improve: my overall business acumen. I'm not the most natural entrepreneur, but I'm growing every day. I'd like to improve my overall understanding of smart business practices in general.

In Q2, I would like to accomplish the following in my professional life: work less, earn more. Continuing to raise my rates across all platforms as well as with direct clients to enable myself to be a bit increasingly more selective about the projects I take on while still meeting my income goals.

In Q2, I would like to accomplish the following in my personal life: take the next steps toward first-time home-ownership. 

[dereck_s]

2 hours ago, smashradio said:

My greatest accomplishment/highlight in Q1 was: Investing more in my business outside of Fiverr. 
The thing I’m most grateful in Q1 for is: My wonderful son. 
In Q2, I would like to improve my business efforts outside of Fiverr even more, to improve resilience against anyone who works from a bean bag. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish a planned platform switch for the newspaper that I own and operate, and see an increase in revenue of at least 20%. 
In Q2, I would like to accomplish my plan for increased personal resilicence. Oh, and I'm starting on the carnivore diet!

 

I do carnivore, can't recommend it enough! I struggled a lot with food options in the beginning but overall it's made a dramatic improvement on my life.

[dereck_s]

"Q1" hit me like a sack of bricks due to Fiverr's system update and my demotion to level 0. It made me feel like not only was I a terrible designer but that Fiverr saw me as exactly the type of person they don't want on their platform. I don't know how else to explain getting the second lowest success score you can get despite having perfect public metrics on my account for a decade.

The thing I'm most grateful for is my supportive family that's been able to help me switch lanes in my life and be less reliant on Fiverr and start the path towards other directions and platforms.

[emmaki]

Speaking of vacation mode, didn't Fiverr tell everyone in August that they had revamped vacation mode so that it wouldn't affect anyone ever again?

Another win for Fiverr transparency! 

Here's a 2014 blog post: 

However, for years sellers have complained that this isn't the case. NINE YEARS OF COMPLAINTS and hacks to close down gigs temporarily while avoiding VM, Fiverr rectified this system:

Of course, this was introduced on the forum as being an amazing new thing: 

So.... 30 days every quarter? I was OOO dude to illness for most of 2022 and 2023. Do you know what I noticed? My Gigs and ratings were most definitely affected (both "vacation types"), and despite being really quite sick, I would try to do some work just to nab a 5-star review to appease a  ghastly algorithm so I wouldn't be completely ruined when I got better. Does this serve me or my buyers, or does it serve Fiverr's transparently insatiable hunger for AI metrics to govern the marketplace? After all, not working = no metrics = does not compute, error, human does not exist.

The old excuse for the old broken vacation mode, by the way, was that "sellers need time to adjust to getting back into the office". Which never made any sense since sellers are not employees and can set their time off at will, which means they can include their oh God, I need do deal with Fiverr again into their holiday. Or simply not bother and work through the "time off" anyway because muh metrics. 

My Q1 is the same as anyone else's. How do I make Fiverr a less horrifically and demanding presence in my life? 

If transparency remains one of Fiverr's 2023 goals, then the company must communicate more honestly and actually address the issues that sellers bring to them, not simply tweak old systems to better serve Fiverr and its investors and then claim that they are a solution for the platform's users. 

[smashradio]

17 hours ago, emmaki said:

You monster!

I couldn't find a good meat is m*rder GIF, but I did find this awesome Hitch GIF: 

However, sometimes meat may fight back: 



I also eat delicious meat. #sorrynotsorry about OT

I love that! Hitch is the man.

 

17 hours ago, texvox said:

 

The thing I'm most grateful for in Q1 is: bouncing back closer to my average monthly earnings here on Fiverr after using "Vacation Mode" for 10 days in November literally nuked my gig (went from averaging $14k/mo and 25k impressions/week with a $17k peak in October to $2k and 1k impressions/week in November, $6k and 1.5k impressions/week in December). Getting back much closer to my old numbers which is great. I won't be using Vacation Mode ever again here on Fiverr. 

 

I've been flipping that switch on and off for a decade, and it hasn't messed with my earnings. Even after taking a break for ten days, I don't see any downturn in my numbers. Makes me think there's a knack to using vacation mode the right way. What I do is, I extend my delivery times leading up to my break and start winding down a few days before I actually step away. While I'm on that pre-break, I keep wrapping up existing orders. Even when I'm off, I make it a point to reply to messages. And if possible, I leave a few orders in the pipeline so that I've got a nice stack to deliver when I get back. I'm not entirely sure all this makes a difference, but it's been a good strategy for me over the years. 

17 hours ago, dereck_s said:

 

Yes, it's a bit difficult to go all in, but once you realize the options it's not so bad. I've been on just meat, eggs and cheese for three weeks. Had a cheat with some McDonald's yesterday and I felt horrible all day compared to days I keep to it. It's truly a lifechanger. 

Edited March 28 by smashradio

[ghoshradhe]

2 hours ago, smashradio said:

I love that! Hitch is the man.

 

I've been flipping that switch on and off for a decade, and it hasn't messed with my earnings. Even after taking a break for ten days, I don't see any downturn in my numbers. Makes me think there's a knack to using vacation mode the right way. What I do is, I extend my delivery times leading up to my break and start winding down a few days before I actually step away. While I'm on that pre-break, I keep wrapping up existing orders. Even when I'm off, I make it a point to reply to messages. And if possible, I leave a few orders in the pipeline so that I've got a nice stack to deliver when I get back. I'm not entirely sure all this makes a difference, but it's been a good strategy for me over the years. 

Yes, it's a bit difficult to go all in, but once you realize the options it's not so bad. I've been on just meat, eggs and cheese for three weeks. Had a cheat with some McDonald's yesterday and I felt horrible all day compared to days I keep to it. It's truly a lifechanger. 

Ok I got it and thank you a lot

[texvox]

4 hours ago, smashradio said:

I've been flipping that switch on and off for a decade, and it hasn't messed with my earnings. Even after taking a break for ten days, I don't see any downturn in my numbers. Makes me think there's a knack to using vacation mode the right way. What I do is, I extend my delivery times leading up to my break and start winding down a few days before I actually step away. While I'm on that pre-break, I keep wrapping up existing orders. Even when I'm off, I make it a point to reply to messages. And if possible, I leave a few orders in the pipeline so that I've got a nice stack to deliver when I get back. I'm not entirely sure all this makes a difference, but it's been a good strategy for me over the years. 

 

Responding to messages while you're out is probably what lead to your positive outcome vs. mine. When I left for 10 days in November it was to go Ukraine to rebuild homes in the far east of the country with some friends. I kept the "All buyers can contact me" option off when enabling vacation mode as I knew I would have zero wifi and likely no cell signal so I couldn't respond to any messages. Otherwise my pre-trip prep was the same as yours - extend delivery mode, wind it down and wrap up projects before I left, although I didn't leave any in the queue since it was going to be 10 days out.   That'll teach me to try and offer humanitarian aid abroad 🤷‍♂️

Even when I am not in that situation though, I prefer to truly unplug not have to connect to Fiverr daily to respond to buyer messages. I find it distracts me way too much from focusing on my wife and kids, and even when I'm by myself it takes my mind away from rest. With my direct business it's no big deal - away message takes care of it and I can check maybe once every 3 days to make sure I'm not missing big opportunities. Here on Fiverr that's apparently too much to ask.

Edited March 28 by texvox

[smashradio]

59 minutes ago, texvox said:

Responding to messages while you're out is probably what lead to your positive outcome vs. mine. When I left for 10 days in November it was to go Ukraine to rebuild homes in the far east of the country with some friends. I kept the "All buyers can contact me" option off when enabling vacation mode as I knew I would have zero wifi and likely no cell signal so I couldn't respond to any messages. Otherwise my pre-trip prep was the same as yours - extend delivery mode, wind it down and wrap up projects before I left, although I didn't leave any in the queue since it was going to be 10 days out.   That'll teach me to try and offer humanitarian aid abroad 🤷‍♂️

How dare you leave Fiverr to do humanitarian work? The algorithm doesn't look kindly on people actually doing great things – only those who know how to communicate that they care using a corporate word salad generated by GPT on a social impact page. 🤐

But yes, I expect allowing buyers to reach out had something to do with it - plus me being able to deliver several projects once I come back, to get the review juices flowing again. 

59 minutes ago, texvox said:

Even when I am not in that situation though, I prefer to truly unplug not have to connect to Fiverr daily to respond to buyer messages. I find it distracts me way too much from focusing on my wife and kids, and even when I'm by myself it takes my mind away from rest. With my direct business it's no big deal - away message takes care of it and I can check maybe once every 3 days to make sure I'm not missing big opportunities. Here on Fiverr that's apparently too much to ask.

Yeah, I know how you feel and I agree. I've become pretty good at sitting down for 30 minutes each day to stay on track on days off, but it does distract. Fiverr does set unrealistic expectations if you're one of those crazy people with a life outside of work. If you need inspiration on how to virtue signal instead of doing real good, Fiverr's version of "transparency" is a perfect example.

Edited March 28 by smashradio

[servanch]

22 hours ago, dereck_s said:

"Q1" hit me like a sack of bricks due to Fiverr's system update and my demotion to level 0. It made me feel like not only was I a terrible designer but that Fiverr saw me as exactly the type of person they don't want on their platform. I don't know how else to explain getting the second lowest success score you can get despite having perfect public metrics on my account for a decade.

The thing I'm most grateful for is my supportive family that's been able to help me switch lanes in my life and be less reliant on Fiverr and start the path towards other directions and platforms.

you will hit it one day