If this goes well, we will have lots of work for you

[cyaxrex]

Well, with Fiverr being down at the moment, I can’t really do any work. In this case, I thought that I would post a tip for new sellers which I think is somewhat useful.

Now, as a writer, I get orders and messages every week which end with the line, “if this goes well, we will have lots of work for you.”

In many cases, delivered gigs and replies are then followed up with messages such as, “we need 10 x blogs per day,” or “100 product descriptions per week. This will be a long term job, this will be good for you etc…”

Are you a new seller who has just received something like the above? If so, you are likely wetting your pants with excitement. After all, a steady flow of bread and butter clients are the stuff that freelancer dreams are made of. However, my advice would be to drop these buyers like you would one of those annoying, too hot to handle train station coffees you get in little plastic cups.

I don’t mean that such orders should be cancelled. Rather, my own experience has demonstrated to me that the majority of these buyers are the absolute worst to ever enter into long-term working relationships with.

For one, such buyers will usually ask for a discount on bulk work. Don’t ever agree to this. These buyers will already be getting a fantastic deal from you and time is money. All offering a discount will do, is reduce the amount of time which you have left to spend working on other projects.

Secondly, be aware that in the long-term, you stand to make much more money from individual bundles and groups of clients than you do singular buyers who buy cut-price work in bulk.

For example, I recently turned down a 10 article a day long term project, simply due to the fact that on any one day I can sell individual articles + extras for $15-$30 a piece. In like manner, I have regular buyers who buy from me because they like my work and don’t expect discounts or freebies. In fact, they will often tip and order any extras they need which further helps me pump up my overall earning volume.

As a third point, many, “if this goes well” clients rarely follow through with promises to order as consistently as they say. In low sale periods, I have agreed to work on long-term projects. However, as well as having to turn down offers of new work after committing to such, the buyers in question have rarely, if ever followed through with consistent weekly or daily orders.

Sometimes this is because these buyers simply find someone else who will do the same job cheaper. However, in most cases, this is because these buyers are people selling on work and their project simply finishes or their own clients simply choose to work with someone else.

Lastly, a lot of theses, “if this goes well” buyers can be asses. Some will want to engage in heavy communication such as s***e calls and the like in order to make sure that you get their brief. Others will simply start treating you like you work for them and take your time for granted at every turn. Do they need a revision because they didn’t supply you with the right brief? Well, don’t expect them to pay extra. They are doing you a service remember, by sending you work in the first place.

Of course, the above doesn’t apply to regular buyers overall. The longer you work on Fiverr, the more regular buyers you will build up simply by providing great quality work. In my opinion, though, the “if this goes well” crowd should usually be avoided. Alternatively, say that you will be happy to work with them, just make sure to never discount. This and only accept orders which you can fit around a work schedule which won’t see you have to decline work from other buyers.

[grvkumar121]

Hi Cyaxrex. Yes you are right. I’m also a writer on fiverr.com. And this happens with me usually. People come over here and say that if will have more and ask for a very low price. They ask for a world in $5, $10 or $20. And never return back. My tip for other writer is that make a standard of your rates and don’t go below of this. I am sure you will get the clients of your dream soon.

[grvkumar121]

great article.

[cyaxrex]

Thanks grvkumar121. I’ve got a pretty good group of buyers at the moment. That’s why I think that it’s important for all kinds of service providers on Fiverr to stick by their guns and try and avoid the likes of the “if this goes well crowd.” - It can sometimes work, but I usually just end up with more problems than benefits when working with such people.

[liz_iudakhina]

Thank you for the article. I am just starting here in as a short article writer/translator - and have received a couple of if-it-goes-well offers. Although I don’t think all such buyers are difficult/unreasonable, and getting a sample mini-job before committing to a bulk order seems like a good strategy for both sides, I definitely understand what you’re talking about.

My current take on that is not to accept one big order (e.g. 20 articles in a pack), but break it down in mini-packs of 5 maximum. Would you say it’s a good strategy to reduce the degree of stress and frustration if something goes wrong? My thinking is, well, at least I’ll be able to relatively painlessly get out after delivering a smaller gig.

[cyaxrex]

I think part of the problem with “if it goes well” buyers, is that they usually hone in on new sellers especially. Now, I’m not saying that they are all out to be difficult or unreasonable. However, one thing which I wouldn’t do is offer free samples.

When I first started on Fiverr, I put together an online portfolio of articles which I could send anyone a link to if they ever asked to see examples of my work. There are lots of free portfolio websites out there and they are easy to set up. Also, this way, you can cut down any time doing ‘tests’ for buyers, and if they still ask for these you should just move on as such buyers will usually be trying to get work FOC.

As for breaking down work, I still do this unless I’ve worked with a buyer previously. The trick is to never get drawn into a completely one on one buyer-seller arrangement, one where after agreeing to complete regular work, you don’t have time to work on orders from other clients.

Also, always work within your own time frame. Some buyers will say they want regular work delivered at 9am their time every day but will place orders without paying for extra fast delivery or the like. In this case, tell a buyer that you can deliver 5-10, or whatever amount of articles at a single pre-defined time which you are comfortable with. If you agree otherwise, buyers will sometimes attempt to micromanage you around their schedule and everything can get messy very quickly - especially if you have to juggle other orders at the same time.

Most importantly, always remember that “I will send you regular work” buyers often won’t. In this case, always try to work with as diverse an amount of buyers as possible. This will help build your reputation and reduce the stress associated with you feeling like you are trapped in a relationship with one buyer who is becoming increasingly difficult to please.

[mariasbd]

thank you for the article, i am new here started just 4 days ago , and i surely need all informations that can help me , if you have another advice due to your experience here i would like to know it thanks again this was helpful

[liz_iudakhina]

Thank you for helpful tips!

Definitely NO free samples, EVER (a small sample job for $5 is absolutely fine though). A real, respectful buyer will always be able to draw conclusions from the generic samples you provide to them or in your profile.

Luckily, never had to encounter anyone who’d want me to work within their own micromanaged timetable…can imagine how stressful it would be, though.

[misscrystal]

I’m not a writer but buyers who say “if this goes well I will give you a lot of work” are the most cheap, thinking you will be so thrilled that you will do your best work for very little pay.

[cyaxrex]

You know it’s really crazy but I just received the following:

“Can you send me one paragraph you can create today so I can learn about your English writing abilities? (I am looking for someone to prepare dozens of articles for us every month).”

This a simple “no” for me. Already, this potential buyer has demonstrated that they have no respect for my time and that $5 is enough for them to squabble over. - See what they’ve done, though? They’ve brought out the potential big order guns to make it sound like they are offering me a great deal.

This is exactly why sellers should avoid these buyers at their peril.

[lbkcreative]

Smart article! Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “If this goes well…” You’re spot-on about how it usually works out. 🙂

[esthernyambura]

You are right Andy.
When i first started fiverr, I got my first order 1 week after creating my gig. I was extremely happy considering that was not a $5 order.
It was a $50
When the buyer had already placed this awesome order, i was eager to get started.
This is what happened
The buyer would send few images at a time and would tell me to deliver at or before 1 pm (Bangalore time. Then after 1 pm he will send other images which i should deliver by a certain time.
This was very stressful as i wanted to work on my own free time.
I told him to send all work instructions and i will deliver on time since we will check the countdown.
Lol the buyer became furious and considering this was just my first order, i refunded since i didn’t want any negative review. From that day, i don’t like sending huge custom offers especially to new clients

[fonthaunt]

100% agreed. I see these in BR all the time, often wanting “20 articles with excellent grammar, keyword rich, for $5. If it goes well there will be more…”

I never bid on these really large ones even in slow times because I would spend hours writing 20 and they would still want revisions. Then, if they love my work and really do want more, they’ll ignore what I told them about 1st order discounts and get furious when I tell them to place future orders based on my actual gigs. When I get a message from a prospective buyer I get tense at the words “if it goes well” or “lots more work.”

I do occasionally work with more reasonable-sounding “if this goes well” buyers when things are slow. I might give them double word count for $5 or 5 articles for the price of 2, reminding them at every step that it’s a one-time deal. The ones that agree and communicate well usually leave a nice review and turn into real and profitable repeat buyers about 25% of the time. The other 75% either move on or come back wanting bulk orders cheaper than the initial deal. Those hot cups get dropped with extra-fast anti-delivery.

[misscrystal]

When they say it I tell them:

Everything always goes well on my end. I am somewhat selective about my clients.

[servicemarket]

Great article!

I’m curious how you go about turning down orders without getting bad reviews.

[zooklikebook]

Thanks for the article. I’m not a writer, but proofreader and copyeditor, and I have only been doing this on Fiverr about 6 months, but I see this type of thing all the time. Many many clients try to get a lot for very little. Most inquiries I get are like that. It is rather disappointing, but I am trying to keep the faith and hope that my client base will grow and I will actually get some “real” clients who have repeat business. I have had good reviews and some repeats of small projects, so I’m not giving up! Nice to know I’m not the only one.

[cyaxrex]

I simply don’t accept work from anyone who seems like they might give me a hard time. Also, if someone places an order for my standard 6-day delivery gig but requests material sooner, I refer them back to my gig description and/or suggest that they pay for extra fast delivery. If they don’t pay up they have no recourse for complaint.

[emmaki]

Not quite in the same vein, but I had this plop in my inbox not so long ago:

hello, I own a [anon] website (niche, niche, niche, niche). I have about 25,000 pages that I need to have a description for. I am looking for someone to create this. I am curious your thoughts on how it should be done, by either simply copying sentences from various other sites for each page. or from someone reading various pages and then re-writing in their own words the description.

each xxxxxx, and xxxxx need to have about a 500 word description.

what are your thoughts on how this should be gone about, and are you interested in this work?

For reference, I charge $75/400 words for the gig he was referencing. I have also worked with content mills working with sites like eBay. I don’t know what the size of their budget was, nor who they hired, but I do know they hired someone (who outsourced to UNNAMED COMPETITOR) for $2 a throw for 200 words. And that was with an editing team on top of the mill.

Then he asked me for a free consultation on how to go about it, while simultaneously revealing why his business would flop through his own ideas. I told him I don’t do free consultations. Why would I in this case? At my prices, 25000 x 75 is almost $2m (and that’s bulk… because that’s for 400 words, not 500…). Let’s say I give a six month timeframe. That’s still around 140 articles a day. HELLO. Free consultation leading to what, exactly? My eventual death through boredom? (I quit the not lucrative at all ebay gig because the editors were nazis, and beside, I couldn’t handle having make the most obscure product categories sound vibrant anymore. IT’S A BIKE PANNIER.)

25k pages. Jesus just put it through a spinner. You don’t have a $70k+ budget nor are you looking in the right place to start this kind of work.

But yes, if all goes well…

[flyingmongoose6]

This is very accurate. Buyers who promise 10 gigs a week or a “long term contract” are the WORST. And giving bulk discounts is dumb and annoying- it is just not worth it in most instances.

[eloquensia]

Honestly making use of the fiverr forum is always an eye opener. Thanks a lot fam

[janet_louise]

PREACH! I do voice over and was just told “I think you really should consider doing this as I have lots of work in the future”. I do freelance for the fun of it. I don’t need to do it. I like to do it. So, if you don’t like the fact I charge gig extras for various things like rush delivery, then don’t order me. I always respond with a very pleasant “I’m sorry my gig doesn’t fit your criteria, but I’m sure there are many other wonderful Fiverr freelancers our there happy to help!”. What I really wish I could say is go F#$% your hat! But, customer service is par. And I find that when I do stick to my guns, the ones who understand that my time is money will often pay for the gig extras. Anyway, thanks for saying what I’ve been thinking all day!

[misscrystal]

25000 pages? Is he the owner of Amazon?
Even at $2 a page that’s $50,000. I don’t believe him.

[mariamughal]

Hello Cyaxrex! I’ve 2-3 buyers that are my regular customers and our conversation started with them telling me that the first order will lead to several more 🙂
So I think not all the buyers lie when they claim to buy regularly 🙂

[promisepeters]

Honestly this is quite expository

[danielfv0]

Absolutely true, great article. Got exactly one of those promises after an interesting proposal to a buyer’s request. Luckily no order was placed. I have a feeling that they are sort of middleman… Also had a “buyer” who contacted me and wanted to know if I had homepage where he could see my work experience.
I told him I don’t have a website and then he wanted s***e contacts because “Fiverr is not a safe place”, 😳
Why should someone join Fiverr in the first place if he knows it’s a dangerous place?.
He basically sent a word document via Dropbox, containing his email, s***e name & phone number.
I was wondering if just missed a big business deal!, but better safe than sorry!