So, [RIVAL SITE] Will Put Up Its Fees to 20%

[emmaki]

lol.

It’s a sliding scale, so all jobs under $500 will be charged at 20%, with buyers there now having to pay a new fee of 2.75% per job or $25/mo.

Given that 90% of jobs on that site are indeed for less than $500, and there is bidding involved, and it is full of the usual problems that both sides of the equation face, who wants to bet that that may well work out in Fiverr’s favor, especially if they’re smart and get their marketing team to work on it?

Or are we just going to sit around and wait for that GaryVee video which drops at some point today?

DISCUSS IT HERE. I wasn’t sure if the name of the site would be welcomed in the headline so I’ve hidden it badly in this description instead for those who can’t work it out.

Secondary topics of discussion: do all freelance marketplace devolve into greed and not listening to the wishes of their users at some point in their life cycle?

In the meantime, I’m going to check out what should be an amazing shitstorm on their forums and casually namedrop the F-bomb. Not the sweary one. 😉

[emmaki]

Also, any ex-Elance guys now on here over there, this is your chance to shine!

[emmaki]

It is also worth noting that any hopes that Fiverr would eventually reduce its 20% fee to a lower one–a remote hope at best–is now deader than a dodo that has been rasputined. Twice.

Not that anyone on this forum cares. I note one of the major topics of conversation today has been the pink balls and minor aggravation and nitpicking over tiny issues with the long-overdue notification box. Sure, it’s not perfect–but imagine if Fiverr put their fee up to 30%?

Yeah, nobody cares about the pink balls anymore. Unless you make them a symbol of the uprising. I can already see the torn, bloodied flag fluttering proudly above the parapets alongside the heads on spikes. A truly touching image.

Come on somebody, I want to discuss this and I’m starting to get fanciful.

[writer99025]

“Yeah, nobody cares about the pink balls anymore. Unless you make them a symbol of the uprising. I can already see the torn, bloodied flag fluttering proudly above the parapets alongside the heads on spikes. A truly touching image.”

Wow…who writes like this? You are a genius 🙂

[misscrystal]

do all freelance marketplace devolve into greed and not listening to the wishes of their users at some point in their life cycle? Companies grow and hire more employees all with new ideas. The employees were hired to make changes. Good or bad changes will happen. The only way to stop this is if the original founders of a site were still in full control of
all decisions which becomes impossible at a certain point. Although Amazon still seems to be run by one man or at least stays true to the vision.

[misscrystal]

I have to think a lot when she writes. Like this has me stopping to ponder what it means:
now deader than a dodo that has been rasputined. Twice. I get that dodo’s are dead, but one that has been rasputined, let’s see, Rasputin was the guy who could predict the future… nope, can’t quite get it.

[markp]

I think you will find this is a reference to how he was knocked off

[emmaki]

No, no, no. You really need to read the why this happened to see why this is complete and utter bollox in this case. You also need to understand the hilarity of pissing off an entire website’s (Elance) worth of users by telling them to migrate to UW or GTFO, promising to implement a whole bunch of changes to suit them that never transpired, then putting up their fees by over 120% in little less than a year to work on a website which is a pile of cobblers.

You’re not entirely wrong about the reality @misscrystal. Some nice investor men just want their ROI back and the pissed off that the shitty merger went so badly and they’re not seeing it. So… bleed the serfs dry!

I see nobody’s interested in an interesting subject, again. Well, when an influx of newbs hits in June, this is the reason why. If an influx of newbs hits in June, that is. I love how nobody else is interested in industry news.

[writer99025]

“I love how nobody else is interested in industry news.”

Lol…there is actually an industry? I don’t know, Fiverr is the only site I’ve ever worked on, have no idea what happens elsewhere, or if there’s life outside Fiverr 😃

[writer99025]

I did recommend one of these sites (not Fiverr) to one of my relatives though…want to keep them as far away from my world as possible…and if anyone asks me where I work, I mention one of these sites, not Fiverr…so I guess thanks for the info…

[fitrigwrites4u]

Same, I am only on Fiverr. I mean I know one other similar site like this, but I left it about one week after I signed up and never wanna come back. Since then I am only on Fiverr, mostly reading things in the forum 😛

[eoinfinnegan]

It is quite staggering.
When I first read the email I thought it was saying that it was introducing the staggered fees system I have mentioned a couple of times. Instead, it is quite ridiculous in that the fees come down when a project goes over $500, not when a seller reaches $500 in sales. It is essentially putting the vast majority of jobs at 20% fees. Incredible!
Remember though, this is the nature of listed companies, profits are less important than growth and growth potential/the appearance of potential. That is what drives the share price up and that is what the investors want.
This is worth remembering as all those investors who contributed to Fiverr’s big round of funding recently will want to see a return on their investment too.
I’m going to hazard a guess at Fiverr changing it’s fee structure within 6 months followed by an IPO within 6 months of that.

[cyaxrex]

I’m not sure that this will see a tidal wave of new Fiverr sellers. Fiverr is a hard nut to crack in regard to making a sustainable income and any competent service providers over at what used to be Elance will (I think) be deterred by initially lower net revenues than they are used to, not to mention the baptism of fire associated with becoming a new Fiverr Seller.

For example, if someone is pulling in $50-$200 a day over at ‘that other place,’ they are probably simply going to grin and bear the new 20% hike on their commission. Of course, everyone’s circumstances are going to be different. However, starting over on Fiverr where many buyers can seem quite amateurish, payments aren’t processed nearly as quickly and almost every seller experiences getting scammed in their early days, will (I think) see a lot of experienced freelancers set their goals a little higher.

In fact, there is much more than just site commission fees to think about here. People who already work online full time have income targets which they need to meet each month. In like manner, people who provide high-quality work want a platform which connects them with high-quality buyers. The advantage of bidding for jobs, centers in this case around the fact that freelancers can better vet who they work with.

Of course, there are just as many cons to bidding for work. However, think of it this way, if you are used to bidding for work and decide to migrate to Fiverr, the first thing you are likely going to do is head over to buyer requests. The only problem is that once you arrive at buyer requests you’re going to be presented with the impression that Fiverr is little more than an idiot farm.

Am I being too critical? Probably. However, if Fiverr wants to take advantage of the goings on over at Duck Berk, it needs to clamp down finally on things like sellers posting in buyer requests, poor support for sellers who are scammed and revamp things like the current payment system and visibility of buyer profile pages.

Also, let’s not forget that with $0.50 transaction fees and the 2-4 weeks which Fiverr holds payments for prior to them clearing, Fiverr is probably making more from sellers here than the people over at ‘that other place’ are making from theirs.