What would you be happy with?

[writer99025]

@levinewman 's post got me thinking. How much money would you be happy to make from Fiverr? Fiverr is an international site, so someone from the US or Canada would probably have a different set of expectations from someone in India or Indonesia. Don’t tell me how much you’re making currently, just how much you would want to make and are realistically capable of making over the next year, if you do things right here. Me…I would be insanely happy with $35k to $40k in 2017. That kind of money would earn me a silver certificate from the Indian income tax department 🙂 What about you?

[emmaki]

Let’s see if the image attachment works. It is a really cheap looking document!

I want maxed out prices with minimum work, as I’m going to spend a significant portion of 2017 building up passive income sources; I like Fiverr, but it’s too unreliable for me to depend on as a sole income source and it’s unwise to not have multiple streams of income as a freelancer/home online biz/your preferred term here. Ideally, I want to get those up to $100/day by the end of the year. So that’s, what, $36k which is good for Greece. Throw on the Fiverr income and I’ll be pretty comfortable.

Mind you I haven’t had any orders for 48 hours lol. But my conversion rates are the highest they’ve been all year. IDK, whatever. This is my version of a vacation…

[emmaki]

I’m also gonna be trolling a whole new marketplace with muh skills that need them. If I target that right, I’ll be making endless gravy. Basically, Fiverr’s going on the backburner next year and I will simply continue to rise my prices to keep demand down.

Hint to all mek sells: this is what you should be doing instead of begging for help. Find your audience, integrate with them, become known, then subtly start your pitch. You’re probably just tossing up a link in My Fiverr Gigs with terrible English and/or stolen images which is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. It’s not hard to be successful… it’s just hard work.

[writer99025]

LOL. Thankfully they have blanked out the name and the PAN number.

[emmaki]

I did have to go see what it looked like. The concept of a tax certificate is completely alien to me, both as a Brit and a long-term resident of Greece. That just… maybe tax evasion certificates would work…

[cyaxrex]

Well, I picked up a stray chi puppy the other day who looks set to completely derail my budget for the next month. He’s got something wrong in that he walks like he’s drunk, keeps his head locked to one side and seems to have seizures. I would, therefore, be happy with steady orders, less hysterical buyers and some “we’ve got the backs of our sellers” initiative from Fiverr.

This way, budgets being derailed wouldn’t be an issue as you wouldn’t have to treat every month’s paycheck like the last you will ever get because of something like a stray cat jumping onto some Fiverr bigwigs keyboard every once in a while and putting asunder to all your hard work.

I don’t care about money (unless I get scammed out of it by the occasional devil in a d-cup) I can live very comfortably on $500 a month. In this case, I do and everything else is a bonus that I put aside for rainy days and massive economic collapses which will see people bartering their kid’s kidneys for a liter of petrol.

(That or a zombie apocalypse, naturally).

[writer99025]

LOL…you are a very good writer…remember your old promise of getting your next book proofread by me 🙂

[writer99025]

I read in a book by Aaron Clarey (Captain Capitalism, Google him) that as long as you make sure that you don’t get into debt, don’t get into any legal trouble, develop no serious illnesses, and have a house of your own, big or small (no rent), you can survive on very little and live a very satisfied life.

[eoinfinnegan]

Interesting question.
I have been really surprised with Fiverr lately to be honest. I have just had my best month here (financially) and my orders in hand mean I will comfortably exceed that in December. It’s pretty bizarre. Of course the dreaded PP could result in me completely losing it at some point in the next couple of weeks but oh well…
If I was to receive November’s amount as an average I would be pretty happy with it. I average 20-25 hours per week here although December is going to be more (so much for all those great plans I had for writing, working on my website, etc). Now if this expansion grant works out for me it will be a very good start to the year.

[levinewman]

I would be happy to make less money each month if it meant getting proper support for sellers who make Fiverr money. Last night I had a guy blackmail me and Fiverr support said it was perfectly legal.

Scam goes as such:

1. Order from a seller. Wait for order to complete.
2. Have friend order from a seller.
3. Tell seller (me) to give them free work in addition to their base order.
4. Politely decline.
5. Get negative feedback on work you did for original buyer.
6. Threaten again with doing the work for free.
   7.Rinse/repeat.

This happened to me last night. I have screenshots of the conversation. Support told me that buyers are now allowed to leave ANY review that they want and that their policy supports this behavior. So, I will be writing my 5-step process to getting free work on Fiverr and publishing it very shortly. Forbes may be interested.

[writer99025]

Yeah, you told me about it. Hopefully the folks at Fiverr understand what’s happening.

[writer99025]

Haha, you mean that $5k order 🙂 Let’s hope for the best.

[levinewman]

I got a response from Bob that literally says that’s an OK practice and there’s no blackmail there, even though it’s listed in three screenshotted conversations. So no, apparently Fiverr has jumped the shark.

[eoinfinnegan]

Thankfully not just that. I have agreed to split that order into 8 or 9 orders with small parts being sent along the way and various other conditions I chose to set up based on CS responses. If this goes bad and CS does not back me up I will never take an order larger than $50 again. Irritates me that I have to do that, the client seems to be genuine and honest yet I have to treat them as a potential criminal…
Anyway, I had a number of offers sent out with my normal price and then “slightly cheaper in December” offers and almost all of them came back and ordered with the approx 10% less cost. I might start doing this as standard! My conversion rate has gone from 3.5- 7.4% in the last month.

[emmaki]

I like your retaliation tactic. Fiverr might sit up and listen to Forbes, if not us. You could also highlight all the other things that Fiverr is doing (although that could end up being a very long article…)

[emmaki]

Is the review the “unfortunately the order was deliver lately” one? Because if you weren’t late, then that should be removed for outright lying and misleading others. Although your own review back pretty much lays the situation out.

[levinewman]

My “Seller Support” person that is supposedly supposed to help me has two hours to respond before I submit my pitch to Forbes. And considering I’ve already been recognized by them for the money I make here, I’m fairly certain they’ll listen to someone whom they’ve already highlighted.

[silberma1976]

$200 - 500 a month would help cover debt and savings goals. I am Finally doing a Health Savings account this year so see how my budget adjusts as the money comes out of my check.

What I do not like about setting income goals is that you could be really busy for a while, and you have funds clearing daily because of that. Then things slow down for a bit…and you have a few days with no income clearing. I would go nuts trying to budget for that if this was my full time thing.

Charles

[mariokluser]

You are the first person I’ve ever met who wants a kind of a medal for paying taxes.
If there is anything I can do to avoid taxes (for the record: in a legal way) I do it. I would rather have a certificate that states that I’m the most successful ''tax avoider" my country has ever seen.

[fonthaunt]

That is worrisome, Levi. My own plan also includes more sources of income for the “in case” although my bulk buyers have been good here. I get mediocre but consistent orders, and with staff turnover not much aid or thanks from them for the extra volunteer duties. I hear “Jaws” music, but I hope things can improve. I want to know about how Forbes responds! You know how to find me. 😉

[fonthaunt]

Go, Mario, go! My sister has her own business and should have some equivalent of a legal tax-avoidance Oscar. I’m learning from her.

Just to add to Writer’s thread, for Fiverr alone I’d be fine with a steady few hunded a month. With outside resources like my blogs, maybe 2k. I have my VIP seller blogs that aren’t for income, but some other that are in the “cooking” stage.

[markp]

@mariokluser tell the taxman you are dead. That usually works.

[misscrystal]

If I earn at least my monthly expenses I’m happy. I am getting lots of $5 orders for the past couple of months. It reminds me of the early days.

[tetacli]

That’s actually terrible. If this policy continues, I’m sure that the majority of the sellers who will be subject to successful blackmailing from buyers will storm off Fiverr platform fast.

[tetacli]

I’d be happy with making $800 - $1,500/month. That would make me able to invest and create additional sources of (preferrably passive) income.