I use to wake up excited to log into Fiverr, now it's more of a hesitant feeling

[dtongsports]

This is in Tip for Sellers because the tip is = don’t put all of your eggs in the Fiverr basket.

Back here for a much needed post to bring reality to some. My featured gig has never been so quiet. Wrong gigs in wrong categories. New sellers getting top placement/spots on the site. Non-selling gigs in prime exposure places getting no sales and still in fixed positions. Changes made without warning or announcements. Advertising other sellers’ gigs on my gig pages. Fiverr focused on promoting a hashtag instead of their website or specific categories to promote. Search is terrible, sellers complaining everywhere that they can’t find their gigs in search results and Fiverr CS has been the worst it has been in 4 years with one of my tickets sitting at 3 months of being opened with no reply, solution, or even the respect to acknowledge the issue and say something about it.



I used to wake up to 12-15 orders a day (even hitting 20+ multiple times/month), inbox flooded with inquiries, and an overall sense of security and confidence that Fiverr was the platform for me. Lately, I’d say the last 2 months, it’s been ONE HUGE STRESS BALL. Site crashes and viruses shared but Fiverr plays it off. Top Rated Sellers everywhere complaining about a drop in sales, and it hasn’t stopped. I’m now getting 3-8 sales per day. Inbox FULL OF SPAM. Just not motivated. I’m marketing my bootie off like never before. Hit 13 sales in one day one time in the past month.

Here’s what I don’t understand, I’ve done everything I can to the T including respond to EVERY message in a timely manner yet my response rate is 93% because of spammers who fiverr catches before I can reply so no reply can be given because ‘user no longer found’.



OVER 6600 COMPLETED ORDERS

NEVER A CANCELLED ORDER FOR LATE DELIVERY

TOP NOTCH COMMUNICATION

5 STARS AVERAGE RATING

99% OVERALL

Averaging $12 per sale

Dedicated repeat buyers

Forum participation/advice



I was excited for this year as just before the end of last year, I had a $3300 month and thought that Fiverr and I were on the road to success and growth. Boy was I wrong. I haven’t cracked $2500 since and the past two months have been right at 2k. A lot of you would be happy with that, but after 4 years, it shouldn’t just take a sudden drop like that and no one should be satisfied and settle for the same, always strive for more!

I made the mistake of putting all of my eggs in one basket, mainly because Fiverr was showing the results and was growing every single month up until November 2014.



My opinion, don’t get too attached to Fiverr. They will disappoint most of you. Use ALL of your resources. Fiverr is a GREAT SITE AND PLATFORM, I do not deny that. I am very thankful and grateful for what they have done for me, including motivating me to build outside of Fiverr using the same services I have created and soooooo many on Fiverr have copied and duplicated.



The platform/interface is a complete mess. It has no organization or structure anymore. Too many gigs maybe, too many poor sellers maybe. Whatever the issue, if you’re not the editors favorite, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment, mainly because the ‘algorithms’ do not seem to be working correctly and the search/filters are not accurate by any means.



I will continue to work on all orders coming in. I will continue to market my gigs on my social networks. However, I will also be joining and signing up with other sites to promote them as well and will slowly be moving away from pressing Fiverr full time.



It was a nice pipe dream while it lasted, but I have new dreams and new heights to achieve, and although Fiverr used to be a part of those dreams, I can no longer handle the frustration and ups/downs of dealing with things I have no control over like the placements of gigs on the site and how it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. How Fiverr is trying to FORCE me to reply to messages I don’t want to reply to ‘or else’. They are slowly turning into a corporate structure and it seems now like we work for Fiverr instead of us working WITH THEM!!!



If you’re looking to make an extra $1000/month or even support a simple lifestyle, this is the place. If you want to go above and beyond that, make sure Fiverr is just a small piece of your portfolio as the success stories are few and far between. There are even some Super Sellers with low orders and hardly any coming in.



Good luck to all, get that money! Remember, it’s YOUR business and YOUR brand, not theirs. Do it YOUR WAY!

DTong

[alliemadison12]

This post made me sad. I was just recently thinking about Fiverr when I found it in May 2012 and it was just such a cool place to be. Back then, featured and top selling gigs were always on the front page to greet people; not the same old boring gigs we see today. Remember how oldbittygrandma and youtubefun were always on the front page with their crazy videos? It was a blast back then. There have been some great changes lately, but I think we can all agree that more than anything, it would be nice for Fiverr to get into working order and to sort out all of the bugs.

[sofia_writers]

I can feel the pain. The truth is when I started, I felt like this is the place to be. I wake up to new messages each day, but for the past month or so, I’ve only being able to complete 2 orders. Anyway, I am not discouraged, and because I’m not making it on Fiverr anymore doesn’t mean I won’t make it elsewhere. I love your advice, Never put all your eggs in Fiverr basket.

[Anna]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have been on Fiverr for about 8 month now and it is really interesting to read how Fiverr changed over the past couple of years. Some changes have affected people in a negative way but others in a positive way.

I was thrilled to have found such a great freelance website which gives me the opportunity to work from home and be on my own schedule.

I also see a lot of black sheep out there, and wish Fiverr would take more time to clean up. To me it does not make sense how someone with just 4 reviews can end up with a featured gig vs. a TRS who just brings so much more to the table, though on the other hand I have to give them credit for giving newcomers a chance.

I also love your advise!!! Wishing you continues success! Again, thanks for sharing.

[thecreativeguys]

I feel your pain but you should have presented your post differently.



Your feeling from the affect of “being successful” to staying successful. Fiverr offers what it does you must do the rest of the job. Some sellers on Fiverr are happy to make $500.00 a month. What you are making is probably more than the average seller anyway. To persuade potential good sellers because of your bad experience of losing momentum is not the way to go.



You have to stress your concerns but can’t let Fiverr down because it did not give it what “you” wanted. Your a Top Rated Seller which thousands of others would love to be.



Now, don’t get me wrong with the Fiverr search results and Fiverr’s structure. I have been saying this since the v2 change. I think Fiverr must take into consideration longtime “members” such as you, a TRS, and understand their concerns.



WITH my history all my requests were taken into real consideration.



YES, Fiverr wants to make their platform the best, why woudn’t they???



ME:

Yes indeed my orders have dropped so much so I am not on Fiverr 5 days a week. I have added videos, 3 images and pdf’s… Let’s see if this works, I will post an update…

[itsyourthing]

What a depressing thread! 🙂



Unfortunately, freelancing has never been a secure way to earn a living. I think the most important thing for everyone - experienced or brand new - to remember is that the return on investment has to be the priority when working freelance.



It’s easy enough to get caught up in ‘doing whatever it takes’ to keep the money coming in from a particular platform, but with any sort of online agency like Fiverr, one has to evaluate how much time is being dedicated to simply working within the environment.



Fiverr makes a load of money on commissions and in exchange they provide “traffic”, a payment system, and a theoretical resolution service. I think for many sellers, it would be a much better option to put that 20% towards operating solo.



It can be difficult to stop bailing out the boat and commit to fixing the leaks instead, but many times that is by far the best option.

[dtongsports]

I encourage people EVERYDAY to signup to Fiverr, I’m not saying to not use Fiverr, I’m saying to be realistic and to use ALL of your resources. That’s it.

[dtongsports]

Reply to @itsyourthing: when you think you have a partnership and the support is there and the results are showing, then you stick with where the results are coming from. When it diminishes or reduces, it’s time to rethink and re-evaluate, of course. It’s the tease of growth and then the sudden fall that I’m discussing and pointing out here. I know how business works and understand that Fiverr is inclined to do what they wish, when they wish to do it. The whole platform has changed. They are promoting and marketing hashtags and their social networks should be getting way more attention than they are. Seems all of their facebook posts are filled with comments from sellers having tech issues or problems of some sort and the twitter page should be getting soooooo much more interaction but with almost 90k followers, they get 1-3 retweets on average and hardly any of their posts draw a lot of interaction.

It’s everything. They have so many things to fix/improve on that would maximize revenue and efficiency but they ignore it and just keep adding more stuff which adds more problems and it just keeps stacking up and affecting the quality of the sites’ functionality and appearance. I just checked my completed orders section today and they have extra star graphics showing up on every rated gig. Looks so antiquated and unprofessional.



It’s not a sad post, it’s a realistic one.

[dtongsports]

Reply to @thecreativeguys: …and you SHOULDN’T be telling someone how they should have spoken or posted, post your own if you’re trying to change someone’s opinion or words. I didn’t need to ask for anyone’s permission to make this post, and my words are just that. Mine. lol.



You’ve been doing it a year and a half, this is my 4th+ year. When you get a taste of what COULD be by what IS, then you want to increase those results. When those results don’t happen because of factors outside of my control, I will express myself accordingly. Who wants to stay at the same level?? Not me. I’m always striving for more and since you don’t know anything about Fiverr 4… or even 3 …or even 2 years ago, it’s really hard to take your comment/reply lightly or into consideration. Good luck though.

[dtongsports]

Reply to @alliemadison12: agreed! Bugs on bugs…lol. When they add something, more bugs. It was also so much easier and smooth back in the day. Now it’s time consuming and a process really.

[thecreativeguys]

Reply to @dtongsports: Let me rephrase: I wasn’t trying to change any opinion at all. We all have opinions and I shared mine.



But from MY perspective to deter potential sellers away because it hasn’t worked the way you want it to is totally not neutral. Again, this was my opinion. Hopefully everything should work out well for all of us.

[thecreativeguys]

Reply to @dtongsports: I totally agree. I have never (unfortunately) thought of fiverr to be my main income at all. It’s a freelancing atmosphere which can be up one day and down the other.



As @itsyourthing stated that Freelancing is a risk taking way of living.

[dtongsports]

Reply to @thecreativeguys: It’s only freelancing if you plan to stay there. I’m building a business and the Fiverr platform is a great fit for my services. I’m completely aware of the ups and downs and this is by no means an ‘emotional’ post. It’s a realistic view/experience of the Fiverr lifestyle and even though optimism is very important when self-employed, sometimes a realist has to come to light.

[inspiredtony]

same feeling here

[julipalmer7]

Thank you for sharing this @dtongsports, I have taken into consideration what you have said and even, being new here I have seen some of the things that you have described here happening to me and other sellers. Best wishes.

[escape]

Its sad to read and it is not a good start for us Newbes! I can say it again and again but nobody from the site owners noticed - when other sites like Envato Studio have Handpicked designers, artists etc. Even their are freelancers. I like the Envato marketplace and as a buyer i can find all i want under spec Directories. Its an Amazing money making system! Bad is that new Authors have to wait long time Before they get up a new content. Its cause thousands of new authors upload new items every day. But i like Fiverr, its easy and not as complicated to upload new gigs.

[alliemadison12]

Reply to @escape_: Don’t be discouraged. The whole point of this post is that Fiverr is great, but don’t solely rely on Fiverr to make a living as it always fluctuates. In regard to your comment, it’s hard to compare freelance sites. As a freelancer, like the dtongsports said, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Maybe you like that other site better, but the key is doing both.

[frank_d]

sales have been dropping steadily for the past 4 months.



My gigs are nowhere to be found, except if you hit the high rated button.



Never seen front page, never featured.



over 4.000 sales, $23 average sale, no negative reviews ever.

[dtongsports]

Reply to @frank_d: Great job on the average sale. No reason why your top seller shouldn’t have the ‘feature’ icon. Quality gigs sir.

[sara1984]

Really hope things pick up again soon for you. You seem a really genuine guy.



This quote is one of the truest things I’ve ever read on this forum: "If you’re looking to make an extra $1000/month or even support a simple lifestyle, this is the place."



I would like to think Fiverr would be a place you can come and earn a great full-time income, but it’s seemed to burn so many people.



I make most of my sales through repeat customers, so thankfully don’t depend on the search results much. Still, I’ve noticed how weird they are in my category. Gigs with 4 reviews (and one of them is negative) at the top of the page. So too are gigs that are soo clearly fake. It’s confusing.



I miss the days when Fiverr had that homepage and being featured on it was an honor.

[escape]

Reply to @alliemadison12: I dont ment to be discouraged, but it sounds like that. I like Fiveer and the other sites as a buyer, yes but not as an author on the Envato marketplace where you can sale templates- its not my fav…I try to give the Fiveer site developers som tips only to get Fiveer back to the “old time” like dtongsports mentioned it between his written lines. To have many eggs in several baskets isnt the best option either for lone authors. Yes if you are a Group freelancers works on same Products it can work. This is not my main income, cause i have another work in a different Industry but i like what I am doing here and I agree with you Fiverr is great:).

[charlottezhang]

Although I am a new , I totally agree with what you say,there are fragglesrock,fragglesrock,fragglesrock and so on,choosing fiverr to start the business and spread it to other platforms will be a wiser and better way

thanks for sharing~!



Sheriff’s Note: Welcome. Since you are new, it is time to click the hyperlink to the forum Do’s and Don’t’s at the top of the page. For your information, “fragglesrock” is a word used to replace words or links that are not allowed.

[timelyservices]

I totally agree with your post. It has been disappointing, i only hope things improves soon.

[sarco2000]

Since they changed the messages interface a week ago, I get a lot of notifications that I never see, and they get totally lost. It is making buyers think I’m not paying attention, or ignoring them. Something needs to be done.

[coreymcmullan]

Thank you for sharing. As a new seller and struggling to even get 1 sale per day, I thrive off this kind of information as I need every bit of advice I can get at the moment.

Thanks!