Keep your clients happy or remain true to yourself? 🤔

[Kesha]

Finding the sweet spot between creative freedom and meeting client expectations is a balancing act that isn’t always easy. How do you navigate making sure your work reflects our unique flair while still hitting the mark for your clients? 

Share your tips and experiences in the comments below! 

[yourbrandingpal]

That would be $5 please 

[emmaki]

The answer to this is clearly to keep Fiverr happy. 

After all "being true to yourself" on this platform is just inviting a low success score, especially with an AI that can't tell the difference between an argument and a discussion between two people, one of whom is asking for constructive criticism of their work.

Or what of the rampant and undisclosed use of AI across the platform? 

Or the inability to say anything back to snarky buyers (I think you might feel me on this one, Kesha!) who bark at you as you have to grin and bear it, less CS act against you and not the buyer? 

Or the need to tiptoe everywhere trying to guess what might be OK to do or say lest the AI algorithm Gods and success score decide you're today's sacrifice? 

It's not so rosy on the buyer side, either. Buyers don't understand that, despite Fiverr's invitation, sending an identical message to 3 sellers at once can disable their account. 

Buyers don't understand why sellers are rejecting them for asking what they think are normal questions. 

Buyers don't understand why vetted Fiverr Pros are delivering obvious AI work for $400. 

And CS? Understaffed. Undermined. Treated badly on all  sides, but woe betide if they step out of the template zone. They are, after all, "Fiverr" to the platform's users, and the ones most likely to be abused. 

But Fiverr leadership? Fiverr leadership can be itself. An empty, greedy vessel that only sees dollar signs and cost savings. 

I hope that answered your question! I'm being myself here. Myself being VERY VERY MAD about Fiverr's broken promises re: lifetime locked-in price on SPP. 100%. That's a lot. Never mind the broken promise. Never mind the potential contract breaking. Never mind anything else. 

Like I said. An empty, greedy vessel that only sees dollar signs and cost savings at the expense of everyone else. 

[levinewman]

Fiverr only cares if the buyer is happy. Sellers be d*mned. 

[emmaki]

Not quite true... non-disclosure AI policies.... 

Fiverr benefits a lot from that. Remember, there's a $2MM Pro who doesn't disclose her use of AI on the platform. Maybe the buyers don't realize it straightaway because it's hybrid AI (or the "complex" AI that Fiverr bangs on about as being a major driver of its revs), but a lot of AI content is getting hammered in Google right now. 

Think those buyers will come back? 

[levinewman]

I think Fiverr is completely over their own heads at this point and are unwilling to make the right changes because they can't admit they've been consistently wrong and poor at their jobs. And now here we are.

[emmaki]

The Glassdoor employees describe it as "cultural differences" or an office culture where middle managers play favorites and there is some serious office politics, starting at the top with the rot flowing down and out. Can you imagine getting fired for trying to report a bug - while seeing someone who caused a bug that cost the company $100k get away with it? That's after having to deal with endless complaints about other bugs for weeks, months, and years, that were not fixed until there was a week-long hackathon. This employee also mentions that CS is only there because, well, you kinda need it to look legit. 

This all starts at the top, not at the bottom and not with the userbase. This price hike in SPP without any  attempt to tack on some afterthought of a feature is just the latest example of a company driven by greed. I would love to know how many of Fiverr's current employees really feel about leadership. Because that's the other thing in the reviews. Speak up? Oh dear, here's your pink slip. Buh-bye, now. 

Anyway, 'tis past the witching hour so I shall go and burn my effigy of Fiverr while cackling wildly under the moonlight. Got to make your own fun around here. 

 

[newsmike]

Fiverr has made some decisions which have been unpopular, for sure. We spent a month raging about the new level system, and switched immediately to the rage over the price increase on SP. If we have learned anything it is that Fiverr is going to do what they are going to do and we are powerless to change it. The one thing we've not been discussing how we all survive and learn to adapt to the changes which are unfortunately, entirely out of our control. There are several choices, for us. We can leave entirely, stay and remain enraged, or figure out how to ride with the changes that Fiverr is making to it's own environment and either minimize the damage, or even come out ahead if some of this stuff actually works. 

Don't get me wrong, there are many, many things that I wish were done differently, but it seems none of us have the ability to make a dent in that, so I personally am forced to go to the old standby:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference.

I'll just sell as many VO's as I can, because screaming into the chasm is getting us nowhere.

Now coffee. 

Edited April 5 by newsmike

[smashradio]

58 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Fiverr has made some decisions which have been unpopular, for sure. We spent a month raging about the new level system, and switched immediately to the rage over the price increase on SP. If we have learned anything it is that Fiverr is going to do what they are going to do and we are powerless to change it. The one thing we've not been discussing how we all survive and learn to adapt to the changes which are unfortunately, entirely out of our control. There are several choices, for us. We can leave entirely, stay and remain enraged, or figure out how to ride with the changes that Fiverr is making to it's own environment and either minimize the damage, or even come out ahead if some of this stuff actually works. 

Don't get me wrong, there are many, many things that I wish were done differently, but it seems none of us have the ability to make a dent in that, so I personally am forced to go to the old standby:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference.

I'll just sell as many VO's as I can, because screaming into the chasm is getting us nowhere.

Now coffee. 

The serenity prayer is one of beauty and wisdom that I hold dear to my heart. 

And I agree with you. For weeks, we've been raging. Now it's time to accept that Fiverr doesn't care, and to figure out how we best can get through this as business people. The marketplace isn't what it once was, and it won't go back in time. My choice is to not remain enraged, but rather engaged. Not so much in Fiverr, but in my own business. Fiverr is and will most likely be a part of that business for years to come, even if I dislike the direction its taking. 

As for your question, @Kesha - I have always thought of these two as connected. If I'm not on the same path as my client, I'd prefer to let them go rather than disappointing either of us, especially within a system like Fiverr – but this holds true for my outside businesses as well, because I too care about "hitting the mark." It's what I'm paid to do. If that means stretching my own expectations a bit, I'll do that. I make it a point to find out if we're compatible before working together, and that has helped me avoid a lot of bad experiences over the years.

 

Edited April 5 by smashradio

[donnovan86]

3 hours ago, emmaki said:

Remember, there's a $2MM Pro who doesn't disclose her use of AI on the platform

If Fiverr makes $$ from her, why would they remove her? It doesn't matter if it's immoral or that it feels unethical for any competitor. That seller also lies that they are working alone too, so it's not like morals matter to them. But hey, buyers don't realize that they are fed semi-AI or close to full AI content (some of them do, hence their bad reviews) and Fiverr, as I said, makes money from that seller. It's quite unfair that you will find that seller featured everywhere, while honest, hard working, solo sellers won't stand a chance and even get their success score lowered by that seller, because no seller can deliver 20+ orders a day even if it's Sunday, manage 20+ gigs and so on. 

If there's one major gripe I have with this new Success Score system, that would be it, the fact that we are compared with agencies or people that outsource everything. Obviously you can't match their workflow, even if I am extremely fast as a writer, there's no way I can surpass a team of 10 or 15-20 people. But Fiverr sees those accounts, including the one that you said, as a solo account and we are compared to it. So it's very unfair that a solo writer/seller like me or any others have their success score lowered because others lie their clients, outsource most of their work and also use AI without disclosing. 

2 hours ago, smashradio said:

The marketplace isn't what it once was, and it won't go back in time

Exactly what I've been saying for the past 2 months now, since the success score reveal. We shared out feedback with Fiverr, they know, the constant outrage is unnecessary at this point and a waste of time. I doub there are any changes, because even if those were in development, we would be told in some capacity, just to calm the waters. Like you, I just focus on things that I control. Fiverr income has become very volatile for me as well, so I totally get that you want to focus on your business and have control!

[emmaki]

4 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

If Fiverr makes $$ from her, why would they remove her?

You could ask voiceoverpete that question. Perhaps they will with some policy change soon, along with a "historical offences" ban. Although I suppose the UK 's laws might offer more pause for thought than Bangladesh (the feedback manipulation mass ban ~15 months ago). I always thought that situation was strange, but it's all caught on video. Man becomes a meme making joke videos about CC fraud, checks with his success manager to see if this is OK because he knows this is iffy under the TOS, gets told it's absolutely fine, goes on to become even bigger meme, account gets disabled live on air (although tbh I am not entirely convinced about this coincidence), doesn't believe it, Fiverr ignores his calls, until eventually a succession of staff tell him that unforuntately, there's nothing we can do because the scary legal team stepped in. Pete and his "army" on YT are outraged. Pete makes several videos about the missing thousands he was owed (but never one about getting paid...). 

It's the there's nothing we can do line that stuck with me. I do wonder if the SM who told him it was absolutely fine for him to become the joking voice of fraud even bothered to check with legal to fully address Pete's concerns or just wanted to keep the gravy train moving. Either way, Pete's not the only victim of bad SMs in this respect. Was Pete foolish not to listen to his own gut and stop making the videos? Also yes. Either way, the the situation is a good illustration of why nobody can really trust anything Fiverr says, especially if it runs contrary to what your own natural judgment is telling you. 

And, just to quickly go back to the Bangladeshis and the disgruntled former CS review and make a connection, what made Fiverr wait so long to ban people for their historical transgressions? It's very likely that the Bangladeshis who eventually managed to make it after faking it stopped and were otherwise selling legitimately after that initial cheat. But there's the catch: there's nothing we can do. Perhaps Fiverr got a swanky new AI machine that crunched some numbers. Perhaps they just didn't bother policing the market before. After all, the CS person says that problems were just swept under a rug and ignored for the most part.

I can't say I agree with people who are just going to go with the flow (although I understand it), because this is exactly what Fiverr's leadership relies on to survive the bad ideas and decisions to go on and thrive, all while keeping the sellers away with a bargepole. But in the end, I am self-aware to realize that my rage will eventually subside or I'll find myself too busy to complain. But there's absolutely no trust or goodwill left this time, and every time Fiverr introduces a new thing from now on, I won't be looking at (or for) the positives: my mind will immediately be looking at the way this new thing is designed to ruin the Fiverr experience for its users even more so that the owners can put a few more dollars in their threadbare pockets.

If there was any justice in this world, Fiverr would no longer exist. Its greed, duplicity, and immorality would have caused an implosion long ago. As it is, problems are swept under the rug by everyone, the problem continues to exist, and the least deserving people in the entire structure of Fiverr continue to enjoy the most profit from it. If I had the energy - I don't. I'm sick, and I live in the country that invented the concept of byzantine and tends to it religiously - I would be pursuing legal advice over the SPP price increase. As it is, the best I can do let my fingers scream into the endless void. If all we as sellers do is look after our own (individual) interests, we are only taking care of Fiverr's, and that's a corruption in itself. 

[emmaki]

Well, I wrote a thing but the filter got it. <sigh> 

[williambryan392]

10 hours ago, newsmike said:

The one thing we've not been discussing how we all survive and learn to adapt to the changes

9 hours ago, smashradio said:

nd I agree with you. For weeks, we've been raging. Now it's time to accept

7 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

the constant outrage is unnecessary at this point and a waste of time

I think I accepted it far more quickly than most (hence my topic post around the time of the change, and my subsequent comments), because I accepted there really isn't much we can do about it. It's their platform, not ours, and I will continue to try to believe that they are data led, know things we don't and do want sellers to be successful (let's not argue about this specific!).

Anyway, I would certainly love to see more of the 'how to be successful', not the rage. This for me was what the forum was always about- learning how to adapt, survive and be successful. Let's help each other by doing what a lot of us have done before, giving advice on how to build a better profile, communicate more effectively, optimize gigs, build portfolios, and how to surprise and delight our buyers.

Sure, a rant and a moan occasionally is good for the soul (I've done it myself), but there comes a point where you need to accept it, get on with it, or move on from it. Too much negativity isn't good for the soul. "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of harming another; you end up getting burned".

I remember my dad telling me there's no point in being upset about what you can't change, be grateful for what you have, and don't lament what you don't. He said this knowing he had a few months to live (he actually lasted 18, but that's a different story).

 

Anyway, in answer to the question...

 

I find Zoom very helpful for both understanding client goals, and managing expectations from the start. I think it also adds a premium feel to the experience, and in a world of AI they know they are dealing with a human. We build a relationship, we build trust. That's something AI can't do (yet), and I do charge for the call. Buyers tell me this separates me from a lot of my peers. Admittedly it's not always needed, but that's my opinion, they felt it was, and if it's important to them it needs to be important to me.

Then there is the review/feedback loop. I'm always happy to jump on a quick call to run through things, discuss issues etc. Ultimately I always tell the client how I think things should be done (there's a reason they're hiring me, not doing it themselves), which I think is me being true to myself, but ultimately they are the client, so what they want is what they get.

If I was in a corporate role, I would tell my boss if I thought they were wrong/we could do something better or differently. The same is true of a client.

They either agree and I/we make a change, they explain to me why I'm wrong, or they then tell me to get into line because they're the boss, or if I don't like it, and I keep complaining about it, then I don't have to do the work and I can leave. Or, they can even make me leave. What client, manager, boss, platform or service provider wants someone in the ecosystem whose main contribution is a negative one.

I take the same approach and have the same mentality whether it's a corporate employer, a Fiverr buyer, or Fiverr itself. Like it, lump it, or leave it.

 

Edit: And for the avoidance of doubt I'm not in an ivory tower here. My earnings had been consistent (within 15% of X) from June 2022 until January 2024. February was X - 60%. March was better. It's volatile.

[williambryan392]

 

2 hours ago, emmaki said:

Well, I wrote a thing but the filter got it. <sigh> 

It's free!

2 hours ago, emmaki said:

If all we as sellers do is look after our own (individual) interests, we are only taking care of Fiverr's, and that's a corruption in itself. 

But in all honestly (and I don't mean this sarcastically), what can you do in the Fiverr ecosystem, aside from help other sellers to be successful within the ecosystem?

I think the only things you can do if you want to take a stand that actually impacts in some way is pause your gigs and deprive Fiverr of the 20%. Don't pay for SP or promoted gigs. Sell the stock if you have it. Don't lend your professional credibility to the platform by appearing on it as @levinewman is doing. Otherwise is not having a profile complicity in itself and supporting Fiverr's interests? 

2 hours ago, emmaki said:

there's absolutely no trust or goodwill left this time

I stopped entirely trusting corporations, governments and a lot of other things a while ago. The banks, the cigarette companies, the politicians, the police, chevron, enron, lehman. 

[donnovan86]

3 hours ago, emmaki said:

You could ask voiceoverpete that question.

Yeah, the difference is that Pete started doing some questionable video. The writer we are talking about is doing things within the Fiverr rules. So they won't ban her. With Pete's videos... there was a very high chance of fraud happening and that would fall on Fiverr. Here, that's not the case, because she operates within the Fiverr TOS, unethical but that doesn't really matter because she's not breaking rules. 

It is sad that writers get compared to a content mill, one that uses AI as well, and we end up having a lower success score to some extent because of her, and others like her. 

[mariashtelle1]

15 hours ago, Kesha said:

Finding the sweet spot between creative freedom and meeting client expectations is a balancing act that isn’t always easy.

Balancing with client expectations are easy. Balancing with fiverr expectations are not. 
I was ready to work long hours, at night and putting my life on the line. But when you have kids you start seeing different perspective. 
What most clients want is effective communication, quality work and my work to solve their pain points. Of course there are tough clients here and there but most of the clients come to find a solution to their “problem” that will save them time and potentially make money. If the seller can hit those points it’s not tough at all to balance creative freedom and clients expectations. 
What fiverr is asking from us is a totally different thing. But fine, I’m tired of repeating myself, Fiverr will not change, they’d rather keep sellers that deliver in 20 min AI work and get a glowing review from the client that doesn’t suspect that they just got screw*d rather than understanding that good work takes time and delivery times can not be compromised by rushing its sellers. 

[catwriter]

11 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

If Fiverr makes $$ from her, why would they remove her?

They won't, until they have to.

Back in the day, when Fiverr was Wild Wild West, it was perfectly fine to sell likes, followers, subscribers, paid reviews, and so on.

What put a stop to it wasn't that Fiverr thought it was unethical, or that scamming buyers was wrong; it was the possibility of getting in trouble with big companies (social media, Amazon) that forbid the practice.

Selling AI generated content without disclosing it might harm a number of businesses, but since they're not the size of YouTube or Facebook or Amazon, Fiverr isn't under threat, so they will allow it for as long as they can.

[emmaki]

The EU AI Act may change a lot of things about how Fiverr uses AI (and allows sellers to use AI). 

3 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

Yeah, the difference is that Pete started doing some questionable video.

With the blessing of Fiverr. AI writing isn't quite the same thing, granted, but let's say a large corporation like Amazon, through Fiverr Enterprise, hires someone who advertises themselves as selling their own writing. Things happen, it becomes clear that the writing was done by AI, and [insert imaginary legal mess here]. Historically, Fiverr's going to react with bans and nothing we can do.

Fiverr profits from these sellers, but places all accountability on those sellers. This is reasonable up to a point - see Pete asking Fiverr if the CC vids were OK. If they'd said no, he probably would have stopped, and Pete probably felt that if Fiverr ever decided it wasn't OK, he would be told to stop it. What's going to stop them from doing the same to secret AI sellers in the future (nothing, as far as I can tell)? 

To bring up Amazon again, they currently allow AI-written books, so long as authors disclose it. AFAIK, this is just for internal purposes at the moment, since they are well aware that most readers won't buy a book if they know it isn't written by a human. Amazon has also invested billions into Anthropic (Claude AI writer). God knows where Amazon is going on that front, but let's imagine a scenario where, for whatever reason. Amazon decides AI books are no longer welcome (or, since AI content can't be copyright, maybe shifts them to the "free books" part of the marketplace).

Amazon realizes that not everyone will have disclosed, and maybe just ban accounts that didn't disclose AI writing. How many authors are there on Amazon who came to Fiverr for ghostwritten content? Regulations are already looking into watermarking AI content, so this isn't going to be today's cruddy AI detection software. It'll be provable. The writers will know who wrote their books, and it won't take long for Amazon to start looking at the real culprits - Fiverr. 

Cue a repeat of the whole Amazon case from years ago. Turning back to Fiverr, look at the current approach to AI. AI categories are good, since everything is being responsibly disclosed. The rest is just a mess. GPT communication everywhere and no disclosure other than the small print AI warning on gigs in some categories (which clearly isn't enough judging from buyer complaints). AI governs the marketplace and detects issues. 

These sellers should be remembering the cautionary part of Pete's tale, not so much his videos. It is clear from former employee reviews that cost-cutting and keeping their responsibilities are kept to a minimum. The EU AI Act may fix some ofthe current issues, it may not. But you can All the (non-disclosing) sellers operating with Fiverr's apparent blessing today may find themselves without an account in the near future. That doesn't include legal action from SMBs whose SEO is destroyed (happening today) through AI content who eventually identify that a Fiverr seller was the culprit and who decide to take legal action - say a class action lawsuit - against Fiverr.

4 hours ago, williambryan392 said:

Otherwise is not having a profile complicity in itself and supporting Fiverr's interests? 

(thank you for approving, if that was you!) That's the way this world is designed - when we pay taxes to a government that launches an illegal war (see: Iraq), we are complicit, to some extent, in that. But try not paying your tax in protest. There are a million choices we will make through our life that eventually lead to harm. Change has to come from within a system. Just packing up your bags and leaving because something isn't working is, ultimately, not a good form of protest, especially in an ecosystem that can handle it simply by jacking up prices, breaking promises, imprisoning you, or doing any other number of things to force compliance if you need or want to use/live in it. 

The people, united, are powerful. But the system  - not just Fiverr's - is designed to instill a belief that serenity in accepting the thing you don't like is preferable. That's the reality of it all. But the truth is that the people could change that reality very, very quickly if they bonded together against the corrupt systems that govern them. For example, I'm Fiverr Certified, the program Fiverr advertises as well, certified sellers. My gig isn't live (my choice) because I'm not certified (the other company barely has training, and does not respond to my emails about certification), even though Fiverr would advertise me as Certified. How much faith do you think I have in the other sellers in that program? Or indeed Enterprise. It's been 2-3 weeks since I emailed the Enterprise team and asked about the commission to Fiverr sellers and it's all crickets. It's a very simple question to answer. 

Levi has the safety net of (I presume) lots of money. I don't. I've been sick for 2 years and my once-impressive savings are running out. I'll probably get sicker again, due to my disease. I can't afford to swan off in disgust, and many others can't, too. I just about have enough energy to write a lot (mostly in to complete wastes of time like writing screeds that Fiverr certainly won't read) and try to learn new skills, but that's it. All I want are some decent, long-term clients without having to worry about the mountain of BS that Fiverr is pouring down everyone's throats lately because it can't and won't deal with the fra*uds that make it a lot of money.

To touch on Kesha's original question, one of the things Fiverr forced me to do in the past few years was to "sanitize" my old profile. That "unique flair" that helped me to be successful had to go, since it didn't match Fiverr's "branding ideas". As others have said, Fiverr is the problem when balancing expectations. It's not difficult for me to spot a problem buyer and refuse them service. It's not difficult for me to smooth out an issue with a regular buyer or set expectations. But my flair? Nope. Why do you think I have such boring gig images and such a dull profile picture? The one on the forum - the pepper - that had to go because it "wasn't professional" (so... "unique flair" has some unspoken limitations?). My new one....well, I'll be honest, I had to make that when I was trying not to die, so I used one of those AI apps to make me look less "death warmed up" and "Uncle Fester" (let's just say I lost almost all my hair) and more "she looks well enough to work". There was nothing Fiverr could do about that. The need for a professional image, I mean. I didn't have any professional photos (I'm the person that "ruins" photos IRL). So, you know, there's a lot of personal stuff mixed in here with Fiverr's latest changes. I could have done without all this (I was OOO but risked being kicked out of the Pro catalog without the right kind of photo because nothing we can do) when I was, you know, basically a terrifying walking skeleton. 

We are held to very high standards (at my level, at least). Fiverr, on the other hand, treats us the same as it does the $5 scammer who can barely string a sentence together but will flog you something AI coughed up 2 minutes ago. At the same time, Fiverr clearly promotes these sellers - just look at AI and at least my little corner of the Certified marketplace. Fiverr will axe all those blessed by it in self-preservation when an issue arises. That is consistent not just with sellers, but also internally. 

At the end of the day, I have nothing but contempt and disgust for Fiverr as an organization at the moment. If my life wasn't so thoroughly and utterly destroyed at the moment, I would have left. But first, I need to rebuild. Is it complicity? Absolutely. Do I have time for serenity? No, not at this point in my life. That comes later. Now, I'm going to get back to building my ethical business elsewhere. 

None of this is about Fiverr's marketplace volatility. It is about Fiverr's own greed and complete absence of morals (at least, in the leadership). I'll be in the corner muttering to myself. 

[williambryan392]

57 minutes ago, emmaki said:

That's the way this world is designed - when we pay taxes to a government that launches an illegal war (see: Iraq), we are complicit, to some extent, in that. But try not paying your tax in protest. There are a million choices we will make through our life that eventually lead to harm.

You are right here, I would challenge by saying that renouncing citizenship or risking prison time for tax evasion is more serious and far harder than renouncing a freelance platform, but I do get your point.

57 minutes ago, emmaki said:

I can't afford to swan off in disgust, and many others can't, too.

Me neither. We do what we have to do to earn the money we need to earn. I get that and have nothing but respect for it. I'm also sorry for what you're going through healthwise, life is difficult enough already with that as well.

57 minutes ago, emmaki said:

AI writing

Now, we probably need a separate topic for this (there probably is, I just haven't looked), and I think this is going to be juicy...

Google is just getting started, more of this will come. Think of all the sites that will be deindexed, all the aspiring entrepreneurs that will be burned because of this, all the copy that has been purchased, all the buyers that thought it was nowhere near AI, either because they assumed so, or because the seller didn't mention it. 

Will these people return for refunds, complaints, compensation, review changes...?

I did think that google might just look at volume to determine if AI was used, but I saw this amongst other things so it seems that google is pretty clever at telling if it is (it doesn't surprise me) and is even using humans to judge if the content is spam. 

 

 

[emmaki]

Yes, the AI thing is a big issue (on so many levels - Fiverr is really just the tip of the iceberg). Most AI content is written using other AI content. There's a lot of tools out there that take information from the SERPs. The other day, I noticed while looking for information on Seller Plus, a site that got the box thing at the top of the search results. It was obvious AI content from the writing, the site was 100% about Fiverr, 100% AI written, and 100% full of bad information mixed with correct information. According to this webiste, SP offers "demographic information" about your buyers (A/S/L, wages...the full monty). 

OK, so that's just one website and Google will deal with it soon, right?

No. 

Let's say someone who wants to make money aff marketing and sees Fiverr's tantalizing commissions. They plug in their AI writer of choice and write 200 articles about Fiverr. They don't know anything about Fiverr, but they have an AI SERP scraper that will glean "correct information" from the results. Result? Sooner or later, the SERPs are full of pages about Fiverr's incredible demographic feature in SPP. 

OK, so people should really just look at Fiverr's own documentation because it's up to date? Mmm, not always. But otherwise, yes. 

But the real kicker is that a blog written by an actual Fiverr user who knows, from experience, that SP doesn't include demographic information, may leave that out or simply say "that's all BS". 

Google - in its infinite wisdom - will decide that this one website is giving false information. It doesn't matter whether it's AI or not. In the meantime, the spammy AI sites stay up. 

Indiscriminate (and unknown use of) AI is poses a major risk here to people - the Grauniad has a good article on mushroom foraging as a case in point. Not getting demographic info in SP isn't going to kill anyone or even seriously hurt them, but anything related to health, finances, education etc. may cause serious harm.  And despite Google's recent whacking of a whole bunch of AI sites, there are many more out there. None of these AI blogs want to harm anyone, of course - it all boils down to making money to survive. But at some point, sooner or later, this is going to explode when real life consequences hit. Don't forget that a time is coming very soon when you can automate everything from video and voice to writing with a next to no oversight once you set the funnel. 

There's a lot of irresponsibility in the use of AI right now everywhere, and it is companies like Amazon, Google, and Fiverr that are facilitating its use. If there's going to be calls for compensation over a tragedy (or a few), will you chase the freelancer or the platform? Or both? Lawyers for Air Canada were not able to convince the court and ruled that companies can be held liable for "negligent misrepresentations" made by their chatbots.

I highlighted the part that might be relevant to Fiverr.
 

Quote

The Civil Resolution Tribunal noted that Air Canada had argued that it could not be held liable for information provided by one of its agents, servants or representatives, including a chatbot, but had not explained the basis for that suggestion. The Civil Resolution Tribunal rejected as a “remarkable submission” Air Canada’s suggestion that the chatbot was a separate legal entity that was responsible for its own actions. It concluded that it should be obvious to Air Canada that it was responsible for all of the information on its website, regardless of whether it appeared on a static page or was provided by a chatbot. It also rejected the suggestion that Moffatt should have verified the information provided by the chatbot against other information on Air Canada’s website.

Food for thought. Does Fiverr really want to deal with e.g. toxic mushroom death because they copypasta'd an AI article for $10 for a random blog post that some random id!ot believed? There are plenty of dumb people in the world, but that doesn't mean they need to die because one greedy company wanted to maximize its profits by allowing rampant fr*udulent on the platform. 

The big problem for Fiverr and other large companies that people are losing jobs and income to big companies doing everything they can to maximize profits while shredding costs. It is inevitable that the fury will be less on the person who produced the AI content, but the platform(s) that allowed it to be sold, distributed and everything else. And in Canada, at least, the law seems to support that idea, no matter what Fiverr's TOS might say about misleading content. Who's checking? Fiverr's incompetent AI? Their afterthought fig-leaf of support services?

AI is rewriting a lot of things. Fiverr would do better to remember that it has a duty of care for its consumers, with or without AI. Seller or buyer, we are customers of Fiverr, and we are all being let down by its blind greed. 

1 hour ago, williambryan392 said:

You are right here, I would challenge by saying that renouncing citizenship or risking prison time for tax evasion is more serious and far harder than renouncing a freelance platform, but I do get your point.

Oh, I don't know. At least you get clothed, watered and fed in prison. The rest might not be ideal, but you get the basics, healthcare and free education. My fallback if things really don't work out is to become a cloistered nun (I imagine it's like prison, but with more praying). It's a practical solution to a practical problem. No taxes with the vow of poverty, either. Probably. I haven't really looked into it yet. I'd probably get kicked out shortly after being scandalized by some nunnery corruption, anyway!

[coerdelion]

According to Moz, Fiverr has a 47% spam score.  One wonders how it managed to stay indexed ...

Still, google hasn't finished the core rollout yet, so there's more to come ...

 

[smartdezigns]

8 minutes ago, coerdelion said:

According to Moz, Fiverr has a 47% spam score. 

 

47% is still too much! 

[emmaki]

Searching for anything Fiverr related is spam. Half of the Fiverr articles are offline (no redirection, just a 404, and no search bar either), then there's the gigs (for example "I need legal advice to help me with Fiverr's latest outrage"), then there's the AI spam blogs. The Fiverr Forum is a cr*pshoot. Might be useful information, might be some completely useless post full of thanks and conga rats. Reddit? Well, if people think the Forum is negative....

The less said about Fiverr YT videos the better. 

I'd imagine the copious amounts spend on GAds probably helps with the indexing, not to mention Google's increasing bias toward big brands/business. Just the other day, I was looking for information about how to do something on Reddit and I ended up having to go to Bing, because all Google would give me was irrelevant Reddit posts. And speaking of Reddit, I haven't seen anything like this yet, but people have noticed that bad/insipid/terrible answers to queries are now being highlighted at the top of search. 

It's a TRAVESTY. 

[catwriter]

4 minutes ago, emmaki said:

Just the other day, I was looking for information about how to do something on Reddit and I ended up having to go to Bing, because all Google would give me was irrelevant Reddit posts.

It looks like Google plans to start charging if you want your search to give half-decent results.

[emmaki]

Good luck with that...