Killing me Softly: Escaping the Fiverr Ratings System

[cyaxrex]

So, another day and yet another mutual cancellation. Why? because for a one minute animated video, someone sent me 2 and a half minutes of drone video to edit. I was clever this time, though, I insisted that the buyer instigated cancellation. This way, I won’t have to live in fear and panic for 3 days while they dance off in their mad merry way without bothering to accept.

However, rather than rant about people with ‘Butter me Up’ for brains (a cheap form of UK bread spread), I’ve decided to be proactive. I’ve spent today working on video concepts for two brand new gigs which should be going live tomorrow. My question is this:

Whenever, I have to insist on even a mutual cancellation, all my gigs seem to suffer from dropping impressions and sales immediately afterwards. In this case, I’m thinking of deleting all my gigs bar my best seller and starting all over again.

Since they are disappearing from searches anyway, (which I am guessing is due to Fiverr tutting and calling me a naughty boy behind the scenes) wouldn’t it be better to create a new gig that gets catapulted to the top of search results as a new arrival, rather than have an existing gig with reviews sit aimlessly somewhere in Fiverr oblivion?

Has anyone tried this before?

[idostuff4u]

I have… it seemed to work. My impressions are way up.

[cyaxrex]

Excellent. And very nice seeing you again idostuff4u! Did you delete all gigs in one category or everything across different categories?

[Anna]

I guess it all depends on how buyers approach the Fiverr search since the gig placement seems to vary by many factors.

When you logged out for example your gig placement might be on a totally different page than when you logged in.
Same with the “Refine Search” option.

It’s just a big mystery but I don’t think deleting your gigs is the way to go. You worked so hard to collect all your great reviews plus your regular buyers probably have favorited your gigs as well.

Did they roll out the promoted Gigs in your category yet? If so, that might explain the tumble in search.

[Guest silkroute]

Let me start with a disclaimer that I am not a Fiverr employee and I didn’t work on the Fiverr algorithm but having worked on other sites which use such rating/ranking/trust score type algorithms, I can tell you that the algorithm does not spare you just because you delete the gigs which led to bad reviews. It applies to Fiverr as much as it applies to other sites which use a review system (ex Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, Android Market place, Themeforest). Every user on the system has a unique identifier ID, all your ‘sins’ are allocated to your ID and have a bearing on your rating as an account holder which is inherited by any new gigs you create.

Creating new gigs will not solve the problem of mutual cancellations on an algorithm level, it will, at the most, have the cosmetic effect of getting rid of the old feedback comments to make way for new ones. You could achieve this anyway when you make more sales on the old gig anyway, as new comments replace the old ones.

Unfortunately the Fiverr system places a lot of emphasis on cancellations. Also, search results are different for different people since they are using tailor made search results. So, even if you tweaked your profile, removed gigs with bad reviews, you will still have no way of knowing IF your gigs improved in search rankings and IF the said improvement was a direct result of your amends and not a co-incidence.

[Guest capitalquality]

I have to admit I’ve thought of this. But for all the reasons mentioned below have shied away. I think I’m going to create new gigs and leave the old gigs, then when the new gigs take off, maybe delete the old ones. Though @annai80 makes a good point about favourites. Hmm.

[Guest capitalquality]

for below read above 🙂

Although by the time you read this there might be some good points below.

[fonthaunt]

The way I took it, @cy’s question wasn’t really related to deliberately getting rid of feedback whether positive/negative or neutral. I took it as a curiosity about whether deleting gigs that had slowed down could have a positive effect on impressions and conversions.

If that’s what he’s talking about, it would be possible to analyze the change with very careful record-keeping. Of course, that would yield stats, and we all know that statists are measure but can be misleading.

Anyway, if he’s talking about replacing gigs with a history of cancellations, it could technically change how the algorithm affects him. None of us know how the algorithm works or how often it is changed entirely. That’s just my interpretation and opinion, though, so he may agree with your assessment.

[fonthaunt]

If I were going to mess with it, I would try your idea before deleting. It might not work since paused gigs might still yield data that affects analytics. It would be less risky to start. I think that Anna’s favorites thing is relevant too, but paused gigs remain “favorited” unlike deleted ones.

[djgodknows]

I concur with @capitalquality and @fonthaunt on saving the old reviews before attempting to increase impressions via creation of a new clone.

Anytime a any information regarding a gig is updated, Fiverr’s SERP algorithm takes about 24 hours to process and reinsert into the SERP. Even going online from being offline takes a good 15-25 mins to activate the “Seller Online” protocol on all your gigs.

First thing you should do, if your impressions or other metrics are taking a hit is to change IMPORTANT information of your gigs such as the title SEO tags, the keyword tags, Reword gig Title, remove and reinsert old gig image or even a new one. You need to jumpstart the SERP algorithm. But NOTE of CAUTION, Fiverr does NOT recommend doing this often (CS rep told me this).

From a personal experience, once I got promoted to level 2, I switched out my gig images, and modified the title SEO and keyword tags. I wont say I’m killing in sales, but I AM seeing mostly green up arrows on “My Gigs”.

But all this means nothing to nobody, if you are at the wrong end of the products and services category. If you don’t know what I am talking about here, please don’t ask me.

Cheers!

[miiila]

Hm, interesting. Btw, some time, that reads days after, I had changed my ‘motto’ or what you want to call it, that line you get under your name (and which makes it hard to write something not making you seem like someone who hasn´t heard of apostrophs, full stops, exclamation marks and such yet), I suddenly saw that it had reverted to what I had there previously on its own account.

But I digress, what I wanted to add is, that I read that one should, when setting up a new gig, at first not care at all ‘how the title reads’ for the buyer, but make it the SEO-effectivest possible, as it then gets it’s URL based on that, and then go back and change the title to something more ‘eye-candy’ for the buyer.
I had already set up my first gig by the time I stumbled over that of course (just like I only later learned that you should have a relevant keyword in your username, though I don´t regret that one and only maybe would change mine if fiverr allowed name-changes without new registration) and had only aimed at making it halfways nice to read within the constraints of sign limits and supported signs, but maybe it´s useful info for anyone who didn´t know it yet, who thinks of a ‘reset’ of their gig/s.

[miiila]

Huh, the forum is still totally buggy for me. Just before I commented on dj’s comment, I had seen annai’s post too and wanted to write something to that too, and now, after I posted my comment, now it´s not there anymore. Good for me that you and fonthaunt mention it, else I´d think I´ve been drinking too much coffee or something.

ETA:
now after posting this comment, I see it again. Weird.

[miiila]

I think the favorites thing is important too. It´s buyer-unfriendly, if their favorites point into limbo.

[catwriter]

Is there such a thing as too much coffee? 🙂

[djgodknows]

The forum’s playing Hide n Seek with you. 😛

what’s in your coffee?? :o

[miiila]

Germany is close to the Netherlands? off to work though now really 😛