Before you post "How can I get sales? Please help!" Try reading this first. It might help

[zeus777]

Admin Note: Thread closed at request of post author but will remain available for reading. All sellers are strongly encouraged to read and use the tips within! 🙂

I am aware that many new sellers post “I can’t get sales, please help” almost everyday. Sad thing is, the reply to that question is usually the same: read the darn forum and do your own darn research.

This is my version of how to get a step closer to being successful.

1. Be aware that Fiverr is NOT an easy way to make money.
   Even though the starting price is $5, it’s still a job.
   If you are thinking that Fiverr is a fun, easy, fast way to make extra money, think twice.

It COULD be fun, easy and fast.

My record for finishing a gig was 10 minutes, and yes,
it was an easy $5.
Still, you need to be aware that is a job, and you need to be professional.
If you do not know what “professional” means in this case,
I think you are not ready to work here.
If you really want to know what it means, read the forum.
ALL the answers you need are there.
If you are not willing to put in that extra time, sorry, you will not be successful.
Do not expect people to spoon-feed you the information.

2. TAKE YOUR TIME to set up your gigs.
   It amazes me at times when someone asks for help on the forum,
   and when I go check their gigs, I immediately realize why they are not getting any sales.
   Sloppy gig description with bad grammar,
   gig descriptions that were clearly copied/stolen from others,
   using a random google image for their Fiverr avatar, bad quality sample images,
   logo designers who are clearly using images that do not belong to them, etc.
   It’s easy to guess that those people spent less than an hour to create their gigs.

I spent a pretty good amount of time creating my sample images when I first started.
When I decided to join Fiverr, I spent HOURS doing research.
I looked and read through hundreds of other TRS’s gigs,
checked their description and images, and did my best to make mine BETTER.
When people ask "why are my gigs not selling?"
I really want to ask them if they can compare their gigs with a
popular seller’s gig and tell me if they honestly think it is the SAME level of quality.
Popular sellers are popular for a good reason.

The level of “professionalism” might depend on the country.
Even though you yourself might think you are being professional enough,
others might disagree with you. Go check the popular sellers or
buy a gig from them to check their level of service.

3. Be aware that there are over 2 million gigs here.
   I think one of the most popular gigs here at Fiverr are the logo designs.
   There are SO many of them, and new logo gigs are created everyday.
   Others are Photoshop gigs like changing color, retouching photos,
   removing background, etc. Again, there are so many of them,
   so the chances of new sellers getting an order in such a
   competitive category are very low in my opinion,
   especially if the samples and description are not well put together.
   If new sellers had done their research and spent time
   looking through the long list of the same gigs,
   they might have realized and told themselves
   "OK, maybe I won’t have a chance here with a logo gig,
   there are way too many. "
   Sadly in some cases, this may be true.
   It doesn’t mean you have to give up though.
   You just need to come up with something different and unique,
   but that’s something you will need to come up on your own.

4. Promote.
   This I won’t get into the details. Read through the forum please.
   If you can’t find your answer at the forum ( after all, it is a lot to read),
   go online and search for ways to promote your online business.
   Again, if you are not willing to put in that extra time,
   what the heck oh you know the rest.

5. Be patient. ( I don’t think I’ll need to explain this one either)

6. Accept the sad fact

So I have seen gigs which I personally thought was a good idea,
but for whatever reason, the gig was not getting any orders.
The sample images were good, the description was good,
I thought they were unique. But no sales.
Why? Maybe, just maybe, your gig is simply NOT IN DEMAND.
Even though you thought it was a good idea,
others did not think so.

You don’t have to delete that gig, you can try tweaking it,
but you might want to think about creating different gigs too.

One more thing:
Maybe you are simply not good enough. Yet. (And you are not aware of that.)

I’ve had some new sellers message me asking for advice for their illustration gig.
They wanted me to critique their work.
And I’ll be honest, some of them were simply not good.
The gig description was clear, they created original samples,
they used their own images as an avatar.
But the drawings, in my opinion, were not good.
I’ll be honest here, even if they told me I can get an image for free,
I won’t want it.
If that’s the case, the only think you can do is improve your skills.
Don’t use Fiverr as a way to improve.
Improve first, and then come back. I think you’ll do better that way.
Fiverr is a good way to expand your portfolio,
but don’t use it as a practice ground.

A bit of a sidetrack, when I say "not good enough,"
this does include the English grammar in my opinion.
I have seen gigs with good quality, but the sellers were having a hard time
because the grammar was not perfect.
Even for something like logo design gigs,
you will need to know a decent amount of English
in order to prevent communication problems which might lead to a bad rating.
I am aware that not everybody is a native level English speaker,
but the majority of the buyers are from English speaking countries I believe.
If you want sales, you will need to know English.
If you don’t have the skill, ask/hire someone to handle the English part for you.
Be sure you can trust that person’s level though!
If you are not able to find or hire a person that can help you with your English,
you might have problems. If you are not willing to take that
extra step to communicate clearly with your sellers,
that shows how NOT serious you are.

Let’s say I found 2 sellers I thought were EQUALLY good.
There is a high chance that I will choose the seller with the better English,
(this has nothing to do with where the person is from)
because depending on the gig, it’s those subtle little things that the
seller needs to understand. True, even with native English speakers,
miscommunication will occur. Still,I get the feeling the chances will be lower.

Does this sound unfair? Yes. But I think that’s how people think and
act in many cases.
Having that said, IF your gigs are REALLY good, I’m sure MANY people
are willing to ignore the English part. So be sure those gigs are really good!!

7. This might overlap with the “be professional” part, but

DO NOT STEAL.

Do not steal other people’s images,description, etc.
I have seen many new seller’s lies getting exposed here at the forum,
since so many of them created a gig by using other people’s image/description,
and to my shock they had the nerve to wonder why they were not getting sales,
and they will come to the forum for help.
When you steal someone’s gig, in most cases it will be noticed right away.
You will be labeled as a liar, and will be VERY hard to gain back that trust.

Last thing. Do NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT send me a “help me/review my gig” message.
Do everything by yourself first. If you are too lazy to do that you can at least
pay for a gig that edits/reviews your gig here at Fiverr. And yes, you need to
go look for that gig yourself.

OK, this got long…thanks for reading! 😃

Admin Note: Spam has been removed and post close to further comment. Thanks to Zeus777 for the great info and we hope for more!

[zeus777]

Reply to @fonthaunt:
You are very welcome! I’m sure we will still continue to get “how can I get sales” posts, but hopefully this will give people a bit of an idea and a guideline. I hope they read everything though, this one got pretty long! 😃

[zeus777]

Reply to @dion:
Great article!
BTW, “I will tell you a joke for a week for a fiverr”…awe too bad, I went to check out your gigs, but you don’t have your joke gig anymore! 😃
It looks like you are doing great though, keep it up!

[emmaki]

Reply to @dion: nice write up, and I enjoyed your thoughts. I’m very critical of some of Fiverr’s methods, but you’ve shown me another perspective. Growing pains…

[dion]

Reply to @zeus777: Thank you for that! I’m happy to add value to these types of discussions always. Ha! I deleted that ‘joke gig’ like one week in of its inception. Funny thing is… I’m not that funny! Ha! Yes, fiverr has been great for me over the years, so I like to be an advocate as I understand what this ‘place’ TRULY implies for those dedicated to being entrepreneurs.

[dion]

Reply to @emmaki: Thank you! Owning a business is littered with ‘ups n downs’, and owning a fiverr business is no different. My experience here is overwhelmingly positive with more pros to hang my hat on than cons, so this is what drives my ethos.

[sdbyars1]

Reply to @chellevanhoy: I appreciate this advice! Having patience is important.

[ronasia]

Reply to @zeus777:
From a buyer’s perspective | what a great post (could have been even longer).

There ARE a lot of Seller craziness. As you stated, Inaccurate gig descriptions,
unchecked grammar and spelling in their BUSINESS AD of all places (DUH!), often a
little pass on seemingly ‘bait and switch tactics’, bizarre delivery forecasts, more.

Some may have more talent than others, but seemingly few have business experience.

I have been away from Fiverr for several years. From the past few weeks experiences,
I remembered why I left. I’ve already lost one client due a Fiverr’s unfulfilled representation.

[ronasia]

Reply to @zeus777:
Froma silliness perspective | For those who remember Monty Python’s “Holy Grail”,
someone could try a gig, “I will fart in your general direction for $5”…

[majdagarou]

Reply to @zeus777: Hello

Please , what you sent me on my ibox ?

When I click on your message to read it .

A message on the top of page shows : "Messaging disabled! One or more of your messages was reported as inappropriate or spam. Please contact Fiverr support to resolve this issue "

[zeus777]

Reply to @majdagarou:
Please read my comment above.

[zeus777]

Reply to @ronasia:
I’m afraid I don’t know that episode, maybe I can youtube it… 😃

[majdagarou]

Reply to @zeus777: your message is spam

[zeus777]

Reply to @majdagarou:
Hi, I’m not really sure what you meant by my message being spam, but the message
I sent you is pretty much the same as the post I left above.
I am not trying to be mean here, but I really wished you have read and thought
about everything carefully before messaging me, because you doing so only resulted in
me hitting the report button.

[majdagarou]

Reply to @zeus777:
Thank you for your information that you gave to as 🙂 I took lot of informations from you =D

But I mean by " message Spam " that when I contacted you and you reply me , I didn’t open your message because Fiverr didn’t authorizes me to read it ; When I clicked on your message , it’s showed me on the top of page : " One or lot of your messages are spam …" ( I ignore why !!! )

But now , It’s good ! I solved the problem 🙂 Thank you 🙂

[vakian]

Reply to @dion: You sir are an inspiration to me,much of what you said ressonates deeply within me,and i am also trying to acheive financial freedom online as a sort of a “Musicpreneur”.
I only opened my gigs this week(though have more to come but need to get some hardware first) and still no orders are here, but i believe i can do it even if people do tell me that this is probably a waste of time and uncertain,even more uncertain then my choice of being a musician not only as hobby.
The thing about educating on your own also i find to be very truthful,because at home i study alot,not only the online business,but also music,philosophy,spirituality,self discipline,etc, and from that research i felt i had something to give to the world rather then needing a degree to seem “someone” or to “be safe” like many people do,and end up in mediocre jobs and leave their passion out of equation.
Many struggles will come from my decision,many wont understand and find it “irrational” but i think there is beauty in it,and your success shows it too,not the success of being where u are now,but the success of following your desire with determination and a goal oriented atittude,that kind of self discipline is hard to see.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @flora_puenzel: That is a poor attitude. It will not be easy to succeed on Fiverr if you are openly rude to those who try to offer tips.

[dion]

Reply to @vakian: It feels great that I can be an inspiration to you! There’s always so much to say as I’m extremely passionate about entrepreneurship, and creating a life based on ideations, but I’ll keep it short whilst leaving you a couple of points that I hope lead you in the right direction…

• Stay focused on what you do well. If music is your greatest passion/proficiency, then go forward with making music as your primary focus and service offering.

• Research the many ways there is to sell music on the web today. You can sell digital files from a personal website with many companies. Research those companies. You could also sell your music in a popular marketplace setting. Research those marketplaces.

• Fiverr’s Co-Founder & CEO Micha Kaufman said it best in a Forbes article he contributed to a while back. He said… “Brand building isn’t just for the big guys.” Find out what that means, and you’ll unlock the key to scaling your products and/or services.

• Building something that has so much power to make you ultimately happy in this life is extremely HARD to do, so respect the process by understanding that the PRIZE comes with a PRICE. I use the word ‘passion’ quite a bit when I describe what I’ve built over the years, but what ‘passion’ really implies is a range of emotions that I’ve experienced along my journey both GOOD and BAD, so do your best not to get TOO HIGH or TOO LOW during your voyage.

[noushadonattu]

Very honest opinion

[sameerthewriter]

Reply to @zeus777: I just checked your profile zeus777, you are one creative guy.

[sobanshah29]

Reply to @meodesigns: I checked your profile, you are a good designer MASHAALLAH

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @nilupsalisa: Hello. Your post is rather confusing but I think I might have figured it out - you’ll have to let me know.

Edited after an hour: I just noticed that you seem to have posted this on multiple threads so that makes it harder to answer you and I’ll try and remove the others if they don’t have replies. Since you haven’t responded, I’ll make a guess.

1.) If you are a seller looking for people to buy your gigs, you should not EVER post a request on the buyer request page. The page is not intended for that.

2.) The requests page is for BUYERS to post explaining what they are need. If a seller wants to sell logos and the buyer is looking for a logo, you can click “submit offer” and choose your logo gig and wait. Many buyers will pick someone else, but you may get lucky and they will contact you.

3.) If you post your own seller request, other people think you are a buyer and will send you offers hoping you will buy from them. This does no good for anyone. Please don’t do that.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @khademulfaiez: Maybe you need to read the forums, tips, help, and academy for FIVERR instead of fiberr. 😉

Seriously, I can guarantee you it works. I have been in chaos during my first year on Fiverr. Even then I got some OK sales, return buyers and enough cash to fund the hardware and software I need to do better in 2016. Fiverr is hard, though. You get out of it what you put into it and it takes time to grow your business. If you aren’t ready for that, then you are right, it doesn’t work.

[nilupsalisa]

Reply to @fonthaunt: Thank you. Now I can understand. Yes its my mistake. I should not follow him. As I’m new in fiverr and its quite different from other sites like upwork,Elance. But I’m learning its rules with help from fiverr forum. This really helping me.
But now I’m facing a new problem. Yesterday I got a buyer logo order and I’ve to deliver it within 24 hrs. I already made that and pm him to check it and provide me if any changes. But till now he doesn’t replay. My clock is ticking and I’ve only few hrs. What should i do? Should i deliver it now or wait for his replay?

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @nilupsalisa: AGAIN:

fonthaunt said: you seem to have posted this on multiple threads so that makes it harder to answer you

I am deleting the others but if you continue to do this I will not reply.

On your new question: If you don’t deliver and the clock runs late, it can harm your account.