How Fiverr Changed My Future and Will Change Yours!

[david_ff]

I’d like to share an unexpected, but incredible story.

It all began about 5 years ago.

I don’t remember exactly how I heard about Fiverr…

I do remember that the first reason I went to Fiverr was to try and get people to know more about a project I was working on. I was raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (A project called Give One Million for St. Jude) and I created an account on Fiverr to try and get people to donate money. I started a gig that said if they donated $5, I would give all $4 that I earned to fight cancer! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a large response, so I started buying gigs to have people promote my site and send traffic my way. This was back in 2010… When I finished that project, I didn’t think much about Fiverr for a few years.

Then a little over a year ago, my wife, two kids, and I decided to bag the boring corporate life and follow our dreams! So I quit my job as a Senior Financial Analyst, we set the kids up with home school, we sold everything we had (including our house), and headed to Europe! We spent time in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, London, and even went to Mexico for a few months.

Well, since I didn’t have a “steady” income coming in, I started thinking of ways I could make money while on the road living a nomadic lifestyle, and BOOM! Fiverr came back to my mind.
Fiverr has come a long way since I’ve started. They continue to build and add new features to the site that make it easier to make money as a freelancer. So for me, Fiverr was the perfect solution to making money online without the hassle of a boss and office.

So when I started on Fiverr I thought, “Hey I’m a financial analyst, I’m good at Excel and PowerPoint, and giving presentations! I’ll help people with that!” Needless to say, it actually didn’t work out very well. So I decided to take a different approach. Instead of asking what skills do I want to provide, I flipped it to what skills does the Fiverr Community want me to provide?

I started looking around at gigs that were getting lots of orders. I tried to find things that people were doing, and successfully selling gigs… that I felt I could do. That’s how I stumbled across brainstorming. I saw that there were a few people on there with thousands of reviews and tons of orders in their queue to help people with name ideas for their business or projects.

The lightbulb went on, and I thought, “Hey! I could do that too!”

So I made a brainstorming gig, and that’s when my Fiverr “career” really blasted off. From there I moved into copywriting and just recently expanded into graphic design. My only original gig is my PPT gig… It get’s an order once in a while.

If Brainstorming was the blast off, Copywriting is what made me think, “Hey… I might be able to literally make full time money doing this!” This is what took my Fiverr income from hundreds per month to thousands. It’s funny because the name Fiverr, and even the concept of doing things for ONLY $5 makes people think it’s small business, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. I regularly get $100, $200, or even $300+ orders.

My best method of driving traffic to my gigs has been to keep my profile and work quality top notch! I don’t do much advertising outside of Fiverr for my gigs. What I do is make sure I’m good on all the metrics such as response time, on-time delivery, high ratings, etc… This way I can ensure I’m in good standing with Fiverr and get my gigs closer to the top in the search rankings. A video also helps with this. I believe that having a video so people can see and hear the person they’re working with goes a long way to close a deal!

I would say that the one thing that has really set me apart is my videos. By putting a little effort up front to make a cool and engaging video, I’ve definitely seen the rewards. I get customers all the time saying they loved my video, or they picked me because my video was awesome and they liked my personality.

Another philosophy I have is to assume the sale. I kind of do this naturally because, I feel in my heart that if they reach out to me through a message, they have already decided I’m the guy for them. (Another benefit to having a video) So I always end my responses with something like: “I look forward to working with you!” Or “I can’t wait to get started on your project!” Etc…

I never say, “Will that work for you?” Or “How does that sound?” I never give them an opportunity to say no. In my mind, once they reach out to me, the deal is as good as done. And for the most part that’s been the case. I would say I get about 3 out of every 4 people that contact me to order. I seek to brand myself as a premium option on Fiverr and price my services accordingly… so when people want the best, they know I’m the man for the job.

Life is different now…

We came back from Europe and I actually did have to get a job again (As a Sr. Financial Analyst). This was before Fiverr REALLY picked up for me. But here’s the thing. I’m getting up into the thousands per month from Fiverr. If I hadn’t signed a two year relocation agreement with the current company I’m with, chances are I’d ONLY be working Fiverr right now.

But here’s the plan…

I only have about one year left on my contract. Then I’m a free man again! I’ve laid out a strategy to have my Fiverr business continue to grow so it can support me and my family when the time comes. More on that later if you’re interested 🙂

So if you want Fiverr to change your life like it has changed mine, here’s my advice:

Don’t get fixated on thinking you have to sell what you’re good at currently. The world (And Fiverr) is all about supply and demand. Find the demand, and then supply the service and you’ll be successful. You may be a grand chess master and want to teach chess lessons on Fiverr… but you won’t make much money there because there’s no demand (Trust me… I already tried that one!) Let the demand help you discover and develop your talents. I didn’t initially know I was a great brainstormer… but I saw that people were doing that and making money – and said, “I can do that too!”

My second word of advice would be not to give up too quickly. I went through multiple gigs before I found one that took off. I tried Excel, Public Speaking, Chess, Date Ideas, Writing messages in the sand, and the list goes on and on… But I will say this. Once I started looking for the services that people were wanting (demand), and setting up gigs in those spaces… my success rate has been much higher.

Third, don’t be afraid to take on new challenges and projects even if you don’t think you can do it. People have asked me to write all sorts of things on my copywriting gig. Sometimes I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about, but I didn’t tell them that. I said, “Sure! I can help with that!” Then I went to Google and Youtube and gave myself a quick crash course on the topic so I could write their copy. As you do this, you’ll grow and learn and get more confident in your skills. So don’t be afraid. Just get out there and figure it out.

Last, is make sure you provide value. Whether it’s Fiverr or any place else in this world… if you provide value, someone will pay you for it. If you don’t provide value, nobody will pay you. So ensure that every product or service you deliver is as promised (or more than promised) make sure it’s the best you can do! Always provide a valuable and quality product, the reviews will take care of themselves!

Keep on keepin’ on Fiverr!

Catch you on the flip side,

David

[brandonmcfee]

Thank you David for sharing your story, and wish you best of luck on achieving your dreams 🙂

[david_ff]

Thanks Brandon! Best luck to you as well.