I'm sorry, what are you selling exactly?

[missashley8705]

On occasion, I scope out the other sellers that have gigs in my category. Mainly because I’m nosey and like to see who my competition is and also to make sure my gig hasn’t been duplicated.



Today I was browsing the virtual assistant tab and saw a photo of a woman who’s chest was almost completely exposed only covering enough to keep the picture from being straight pornogr@phy. The gig was “I will give you the best assistance for $5”… Okay well that sounds like a late night TV ad… Just saying. I’m all about getting sales by whatever means necessary but come on. Naturally no one is going to think “she must be a real professional” when they see that ad, if they consider the gig at all it will be with the thought in mind of what else she might include in her “services”. A woman’s looks can definitely impact her sales and I’m not against working that angle to some degree. However to use your looks to get your foot in the door is one thing if you have the actual skills to back it up. In the case of this young woman, the description was grammatically horrendous! See this excerpt from the gig:



"I believe that here only Quality and Service is my strength. I am an extraordinary Girl with so many different qualities. So you will get the best quality on fiverr trust me. I can assist with some administrative task allowing you time to focus on what’s truly important?"



Huh? What? I don’t understand the first sentence and I’m not sure how the last sentence is a question…



I’m not a fan of the feminists but I do have pride as a woman and I think women as a whole have done well to break stereotypes and expand the possibilities of what we are able to accomplish. The stereotypes that women have had to overcome include the one that paints women as nothing more than a $exual object who’s only job is to amuse men. With all the steps taken to erase this stereotype, why are women still putting themselves in that position? By advertising a professional business service with your chest, you are telling everyone that your body and is all you are good for. Yet it’s these same women that get upset when they are treated like a $exual object.



Honestly these women give us all a bad name. I would like to say on behalf of those who don’t exploit themselves, “We aren’t all like that!” Fiverr is supposed to be a professional freelance platform not a cheap Gentlemens Club. Please stop trashing up the site!

[jonbaas]

I’m fairly certain that gig was posted by a male – probably in a non-English-speaking country. As I’ve come to discover myself, it seems that the desperation of a growing number of non-business-minded male sellers (sadly, from those regions of the world) is to use sex (imagery of random woman in those formats) to suck in vulnerable sellers. Their overriding goal on Fiverr is to make a buck, not provide a service.



I strongly encourage people to avoid sellers like that.

[fonthaunt]

I have to admit, I am amazed at some of the gigs I come across when I just start browsing. The one you describe is embarrassing to me as a female, a seller, and as someone else who has a VA gig. On the other hand, I do see how a gig like that gets a certain number of sales since I see buyer requests for very strange things at times and that gig would probably suit some of those requests.



What is more incredible to me is seeing gigs about a service the seller probably cannot provide with high quality, and sometimes they still have sales and great reviews. Like this bit from a gig offering writing services: “looking for guest posting content or perhaps any article writing contents, well, look no further, cus you’re on the right place” which is a real example and by far not the worst one I’ve seen. That one is still coherent and doesn’t appear to be faking their identity and location like many others.

[missashley8705]

@jonbaas you could very well be right. I didn’t think about that but the grammar was horrible and this person claimed to be from the US. I can certainly see how this could be a foreign man using the “$ex sells” technique.

@fonthaunt I agree it is embarrassing. That’s what I mean by setting women back a few decades. It’s honestly pathetic.

On your second point, I see that a lot too. Granted, poor language skills doesn’t always translate as poor service but in some professions it certainly should. Virtual assistants provide a wide variety of services so I can’t speak for everyone, but for me personally, I couldn’t have accomplished a large portion of the jobs my clients send me if I didn’t have the ability to read, write and speak proper English. Maybe my clients have come to expect higher quality but I don’t think that’s abnormal. I see people who have writing gigs that have horribly written gig descriptions but have better than expected reviews. I don’t get it! Apparently there are a large number of fiverr buyers with poor taste and low expectations.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @missashley8705: Yes, I see a lot of gigs that have stock photos of young attractive women too. I’m guessing that is someone’s idea of “$ex sells” because many do have at least some buyers.



I’m not totally bothered by poor language skills depending on the type of gigs offered. I still prefer someone who can at least hire a proofreader, but it’s not always a huge thing. What does bother me is when someone claims they can write content of some kind in fluent English - but they can’t be bothered to write a proper gig description without slang and poor English. I’m a writer and I’m certainly not immune to typos (especially in the forums) but I try to put some shine on my gigs and correct them later if I do screw up. Just something to rant about, though. 🙂