The ABSOLUTE Worst Buyer Request/Project I Have Seen!

[eoinfinnegan]

I am always amazed at how bad some of the requests posted by “Buyers” are but this one has hit an absolute low. All of the “write 20 articles for $5” or “proofread 50,000 words for $5” (but it will be ongoing work so it is “worth it”) have paled into insignificance when I saw this one today.

“Pay By Results SEO I am actually looking for someone that is good at websites and SEO and is prepared to be paid by results. If you get this right - it could generate quite a good potential income on a monthly basis. TO BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT THIS PROPOSAL - IT IS ; PAY BY RESULTS ON SUCCESS”

The above was posted today with an attachment that gave further details.
Basically, they want a seller to create a website on a particular niche, do SEO work and get visitors to the site and IF the site starts making money then they will pay the seller up to 30% of the profits. They even give the option for the seller to buy the domain and hosting themselves to “get a slightly bigger percentage of the profits”.

It scares me to think that there may be people stupid enough to think that people would actually do this. It scares me more to think that perhaps, maybe, somewhere, there may be someone who is actually stupid enough to do this!

Please, people of the world, please don’t be this stupid, or at least TRY to hide it if you are!

[emmaki]

I mean, if you do want to do this, just do it for yourself and keep 100% of the profits. Same amount of work, lots more money! Well, I say “lots”, but YMMV.

[misscrystal]

How I manged to post the same thing twice is a mystery to me but I did.

[misscrystal]

So someone would be making a money earning site and giving someone 70% of the profits for no reason—this makes no sense.
Sometimes I get similar offers; requests to do free work in exchange for taking a share of the future profits.

[cyaxrex]

Sadly this is becoming something of a standard business model outside of Fiverr. Many book publishers such as those of the ‘For Dummies’ series now only publish manuscripts if authors themselves agree to buy a few thousand copies each year and finance all their own marketing. (I’m not talking about traditional vanity publishers by the way - I’m talking about the ones who used to give advances). Then there is the zero hour contract malarkey in the UK.

In fact, I know that the company I used to work for has managed to halve its wage bill over the past few years by implementing a volunteer/American internship style of program which sees most of the seasonal staff we used to employ on a full-time basis, replaced by just out of school and college people working for free room and board and ‘experience & training.’ Of course, that sounds lovely and community spirited but is actually what we used to pay people £6.95 an hour for at the same time.

Sadly more and more people seem to lap this stuff up. In this case, I’ll bet that this ‘buyer’ has someone on board by the end of the week and in a couple of months time there will be some emotional shipwreck of a web developer in the ranting pot bemoaning how they’ve just committed 100’s of hours work to a project which hasn’t paid them a penny.

[emmaki]

Ah, zero hour contracts. Lovely. Internships are just as bad. God! All of these tactics to “save money” make me fume!

As for your theoretical web dev, it will be a mistake they make only once. Hopefully they’ll wake up and smell the stinkweed before they’ve buried too much time and effort into the project though.

[esthernyambura]

I dont believe that there is someone who can work on such stupid projects

[jamesbulls]

Unpaid internships have turned into slavery. The premise is supposed to be that the employer matches the intern with a seasoned employee and lets the intern figuratively ride along with the seasoned employee. Perhaps the intern will try his or her hand at some of the work, but it’s theoretically supposed to be an opportunity for the intern to learn something about the industry, and the employer to scout new talent and identify the best new hires. In practice, internships have become mandatory for many university students, and employers are taking advantage of them for no other reason than that they can. Perhaps history will prove me wrong, but you’d think that you were an intern who got whipped on a daily basis that you’d refuse to work for a company that took advantage of you, and that you’d also spread the word to your blossoming professional network to avoid such a company. You’d think that’s how it’d work…

[eoinfinnegan]

Lol, I am definitely going to bid on this!
“I want to make a SEO friendly gig which must come in the recommended section of Fiverr. Gig is about logo designing and I repeat payment will be made when the gig is in recommended section otherwise order will be cancelled . Thank you”

[misscrystal]

Thank you for posting this 😃 Love it. It’s outstanding.

[eoinfinnegan]

Totally worth it, Budget $5, Delivery 24 hours…

[writer99025]

Awesome!

[eoinfinnegan]

Magnificently hilarious buyer request today!

“Need to get best money making idea that actually works. Without creating website, selling anything and without investing.” - $5.

Can anybody help this person? Can’t guarantee you will get paid as they are not interested in investing…

[emmaki]

Come now, Eoin. This is definitely an easy job if you know what you’re doing. In fact, I think you should offer to work on this project and insist that you’ll only be paid a percentage of future earnings along with stocks. This is a remarkable opportunity that only comes along once in a lifetime, after all. Don’t be so greedy and short-termist in your thinking. $5 today compared to $5bn in 2026? It’s obvious what you should do!

[emmaki]

All that said, this guy sounds ripe for a hyped up sales page that sells some magic new $10k/week formula that any newbie can follow that requires no experience whatsoever*!

it’s a PLR eBook that describes how to start up an email lis*t with a WP blog stuffed with affiliate links, written in the style of a Fiverr seller who gives tips on “getting sells” after they’ve made one sell.

[misscrystal]

Ahem… actually I might have the perfect solution for him.