DO This, Not That! (Part 3 of the Seller Tip Trilogy)

[naikoosuhaib]

It really depends on many things in your life and you are the best to decide what you want to do!

I am a student and I used to do blogging but I left it due to some personal reason during that time I was easily able to study and earn good. Then I joined Fiverr and what I earned at the start I was happy because in the middle for 6 months I earned nothing but I had no family expenditure so everything I earned was to be kept by me. I almost earned like 300$ from the start and it continued for almost 10 months but I was happy because something it went to 500$. So, I though to work on Fiverr as part time and by side complete my study however I got so much into this that I really think that I can work full time here.

Still I am not quite sure because I think by this money I will not be able to set a new offline business!

So, I think every person at its own place has to decide what he really wants

[warisalijoiya]

Ok i will read after this reply…Only a Writer can post such a long text…Lets find it now

[vinnyrogers]

I’m newish to the forum and Ive noticed a lot of people asking for and receiving advice on improving their gigs/sales.

My question is to the people who followed the advice. 🙂

1 What advice actually worked for you, when it didn’t seem likely?

2 What advice didn’t work, even though it seemed like a great idea?

[imagination7413]

3: How long ago did you implement the advice, and has it been consistent?

[vinnyrogers]

3: How long ago did you implement the advice, and has it been consistent?

Good point :).

No takers so far.

[vibronx]

On 1/18/2021 at 10:36 AM, vinnyrogers said:

No takers so far.

It would be interesting to hear from someone, but I suspect that most people who ask for tips on the forum are not able to comprehend the advice they are given - either because of language barriers, unwillingness to accept and apply criticism, because it is too much work, or because they simply do not have the necessary skills to apply them.

Also, I suspect that some of the sellers requesting tips are not really looking for advice but are just posting random threads because they have heard that posting on the forum will bring them sales (which is not true, by the way). Many say “thank you for your valuable tips” when you point out that their gigs are breaking ToS, something that should require immediate action, but if you look at their profiles weeks later, they still have the very same gigs up. Again, I think many simply do not comprehend what we are telling them.

Of course, this does not apply to everyone. Some genuinely do want help. In fact, I have seen a few people I have helped on the forum gain sales after applying my tips.

Personally, since I started reading the forum, I have stopped offering “Unlimited Revisions” after hearing all the horror stories. I never had any issues, but at least now, I never have to worry. It was also useful for me as a new seller at the time to hear that not all buyers are necessarily good people. Sometimes they are out to trick you or hurt you.

[mvrphotodesign]

1. Increase your price and decrease your amount of revisions, it changes the way buyers view you: a little more exclusive. Ofcourse this totally depends on what kind of work you deliver. I myself put in A LOT of time and effort. Offering absurdly low prices and unlimited revisions makes it very easy for buyers to take advantage of you.

2. Saying yes to every buyer request you get. Decide what buyers suit you or not, otherwise you might end up overworking and getting major headaches.

3. So far I’ve completed 14 orders and I’m currently working on another 4. I think I started implementing the advice after my 12th order or so - rather late! So I can’t say anything about consistency yet. Because not following this advice eventually messed up my mental state a bit.

[katakatica]

Not just on fiverr but in life in general as well.

Choose your battles. I used to butt heads with buyer’s when I first started (I admit it was a little silly) and often still lost - sometimes it’s easier to cancel an order when it’s obvious that things aren’t going to work out (or when someone is driving you mad.) But do fight for yourself when you need to (buyers requesting extra without paying, etc. Etc. Just don’t… Stress over it too much.)

And of course, the ever-so-true only offer something you are good at! It might be obvious but some people still need to learn it. (And I also took my time finding what I was decent and and what is something I don’t enjoy / struggle with).
(And sleep. Don’t stay up 24/7 waiting for miracles. Whether you’re awake or not doesn’t matter.)

[vinnyrogers]

On 1/18/2021 at 2:20 PM, mvrphotodesign said:

1. Increase your price and decrease your amount of revisions, it changes the way buyers view you: a little more exclusive. Ofcourse this totally depends on what kind of work you deliver. I myself put in A LOT of time and effort. Offering absurdly low prices and unlimited revisions makes it very easy for buyers to take advantage of you.

2. Saying yes to every buyer request you get. Decide what buyers suit you or not, otherwise you might end up overworking and getting major headaches.

3. So far I’ve completed 14 orders and I’m currently working on another 4. I think I started implementing the advice after my 12th order or so - rather late! So I can’t say anything about consistency yet. Because not following this advice eventually messed up my mental state a bit.

Excellent stuff. I had a friend who started a business painting houses, he decided that he had to undercut the competition and work fast 🙂 He was the cheapest in the local area, but got very little business as people assumed his cheap rate was a reflection of the quality of his work. any business he got he did well, but the income wasn’t enough to give him a good return. He increased his rate and ended up getting more work that he could handle.

On 1/18/2021 at 2:28 PM, vibronx said:

It would be interesting to hear from someone, but I suspect that most people who ask for tips on the forum are not able to comprehend the advice they are given - either because of language barriers, unwillingness to accept and apply criticism, because it is too much work, or because they simply do not have the necessary skills to apply them.

Also, I suspect that some of the sellers requesting tips are not really looking for advice but are just posting random threads because they have heard that posting on the forum will bring them sales (which is not true, by the way). Many say “thank you for your valuable tips” when you point out that their gigs are breaking ToS, something that should require immediate action, but if you look at their profiles weeks later, they still have the very same gigs up. Again, I think many simply do not comprehend what we are telling them.

Of course, this does not apply to everyone. Some genuinely do want help. In fact, I have seen a few people I have helped on the forum gain sales after applying my tips.

Personally, since I started reading the forum, I have stopped offering “Unlimited Revisions” after hearing all the horror stories. I never had any issues, but at least now, I never have to worry. It was also useful for me as a new seller at the time to hear that not all buyers are necessarily good people. Sometimes they are out to trick you or hurt you.

Good points. It seems odd to seek out advice and then to ignore it, so it does point in the direction of not actually wanting advice or being too lazy to follow it 🙂

On 1/18/2021 at 2:32 PM, katakatica said:

Not just on fiverr but in life in general as well.

Choose your battles. I used to butt heads with buyer’s when I first started (I admit it was a little silly) and often still lost - sometimes it’s easier to cancel an order when it’s obvious that things aren’t going to work out (or when someone is driving you mad.) But do fight for yourself when you need to (buyers requesting extra without paying, etc. Etc. Just don’t… Stress over it too much.)

And of course, the ever-so-true only offer something you are good at! It might be obvious but some people still need to learn it. (And I also took my time finding what I was decent and and what is something I don’t enjoy / struggle with).

(And sleep. Don’t stay up 24/7 waiting for miracles. Whether you’re awake or not doesn’t matter.)

Great advice 🙂

This is all turning out to be the kind of a stuff our parents would tell us, which we ignored 🙂 Which we then told our children and they ignored 🙂

[zreine]

1- Add a gig video even if what I do as nothing to do with video editing or things like that.

• First, I can show more than the 3 sample pictures Fiverr allows.
• Second, it shows Buyers I’ve put time in my gig, so it looks serious and more professional.
• Third I was able to add some sketch and work in progress in my gig video, as well as some traditional paintings which shows I’m not lying about my artistic background. “I’m the real deal, you won’t get scammed.” Is what my video tell Buyers.

2- Stay online 24/7, I’ve tried it, refreshing regularly and keeping open the Fiverr app on my phone. I did that for two weeks, didn’t get a single order. Then one day I forgot to charge my phone and went to sleep. After 10 hours off line I woke up to an order. So I gave up on that, it’s clearly useless to stay online all the time, it even seems to have the opposite effect!

3- My video have been on my gig for around a month (not sure) and since it’s been there I’ve receive double de messages I used to receive before. I didn’t take all of them as a Job, but the positive impact exceeded my expectation by a lot. It costed my 50$ for a Seller to make my video and since it’s been up I got 5X my money back.

[looseink]

Good questions.

I joined Fiverr almost 5 years ago.

At the time, there were far fewer Sellers here.

What worked for me?

Well, it took over a year before I got my first job here. In the time it took, I became a Buyer and hired a handful of Sellers for small jobs. It taught me a lot about how to best present my Gigs if I expected to get any work here.

So I started with a $5 Gig. After getting a crazy amount of business, I added more Gigs and raised my prices to $10.

I still got a crazy amount of work.

So I split my Gigs and started running tiered pricing. So, for different options in one Gig you would be paying $15, $20 and $25 depending on the options.

I was still busy.

It was at this time I started increasing my rates every six months.

It kept working until the pandemic flooded Fiverr with tens of thousands of newbies looking to get rich.

What advice DID NOT work?

Promoting myself on Social Media.

That is a waste of time.

[vinnyrogers]

On 1/18/2021 at 2:52 PM, zreine said:

1- Add a gig video even if what I do as nothing to do with video editing or things like that.

• First, I can show more than the 3 sample pictures Fiverr allows.
• Second, it shows Buyers I’ve put time in my gig, so it looks serious and more professional.
• Third I was able to add some sketch and work in progress in my gig video, as well as some traditional paintings which shows I’m not lying about my artistic background. “I’m the real deal, you won’t get scammed.” Is what my video tell Buyers.

2- Stay online 24/7, I’ve tried it, refreshing regularly and keeping open the Fiverr app on my phone. I did that for two weeks, didn’t get a single order. Then one day I forgot to charge my phone and went to sleep. After 10 hours off line I woke up to an order. So I gave up on that, it’s clearly useless to stay online all the time, it even seems to have the opposite effect!

3- My video have been on my gig for around a month (not sure) and since it’s been there I’ve receive double de messages I used to receive before. I didn’t take all of them as a Job, but the positive impact exceeded my expectation by a lot. It costed my 50$ for a Seller to make my video and since it’s been up I got 5X my money back.

Great tips, and you even created work for a fellow Fiverrer 🙂

On 1/18/2021 at 2:56 PM, looseink said:

Well, it took over a year before I got my first job here. In the time it took, I became a Buyer and hired a handful of Sellers for small jobs. It taught me a lot about how to best present my Gigs if I expected to get any work here.

So I started with a $5 Gig. After getting a crazy amount of business, I added more Gigs and raised my prices to $10.

I still got a crazy amount of work.

So I split my Gigs and started running tiered pricing. So, for different options in one Gig you would be paying $15, $20 and $25 depending on the options.

I was still busy.

It was at this time I started increasing my rates every six months.

It kept working until the pandemic flooded Fiverr with tens of thousands of newbies looking to get rich.

What advice DID NOT work?

Promoting myself on Social Media.

That is a waste of time.

Excellent advice again, very informative.

Getting the perspective of the buyer is a great idea too.

[gajuseidi]

While doing freelance work, I realised how many areas there are, where I could still be improving or polishing my already acquired skills. One of the most valuable advices I've gotten is to be patient and graceful with your customers whatever the case might be. What advice helped you the most in your freelance journey?

[gajuseidi]

On 7/20/2021 at 8:13 AM, prava_smrite said:

Active online as much as possible.

Does staying online actually help? I've gotten almost all of my orders while offline.

 

[leannelrivers]

Start from where you are with what you've got. 

[leannelrivers]

Just now, gajuseidi said:

Does staying online actually help?

There are probably thousands of discussions about this on Fiverr. People who sleep still get orders. 

[vibronx]

Oh, this is a tough one... Most of what I know and apply I have gotten through my business education, but I will keep it to what I have gained from the forum and my own experiences as a freelancer. 

First of all, I learned to get rid of unlimited revisions. I had them for a long time out of a genuine desire to deliver the absolute best I could, but I learned here on the forum how it could be abused, so although I never had any problems, I decided to get rid of them.

Moreover, I learned to always keep a cool head when responding to less than 5-star reviews. To take 24 hours to cool down if needed before responding. Professional responses to reviews are important as your future clients will most likely take a look at them.

Also, I learned to trust my gut regarding buyers. If I have the slightest bit of doubt about working with them, I will turn them down. This means I turn down more projects than I accept, but it keeps my experience positive, which is something I value.

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by vibronx

[prava_smrite]

13 hours ago, gajuseidi said:

Does staying online actually help? I've gotten almost all of my orders while offline.

Its really helpful. When buyer knock you, if you can reply as soon as possible. The probability of getting order increase. It is possible when you stay online.

[gajuseidi]

5 minutes ago, leannelrivers said:

Start from where you are with what you've got. 

I like this one. Start small, utilize what you already have and invest in the quality of your service.

[vibronx]

7 minutes ago, prava_smrite said:

Its really helpful. When buyer knock you, if you can reply as soon as possible. The probability of getting order increase. It is possible when you stay online.

I am also a buyer on Fiverr. I have purchased more than 200 services. Only once, one single time, have I looked at who was online as I needed something fast (4 years ago now). Most of the time, I could not care less. I message you because I want to work with YOU, not someone else. I will wait for you to respond. Another buyer on here posted something similar recently, so I am pretty sure I am not the only one who operates in this way as a buyer.

Also, as an experienced seller, I will tell you that it can be a nightmare to work with a buyer who wants something done urgently or ASAP (I have really gotten to hate seeing those two words). They are often the most difficult to please.

So, all in all, my opinion is that being online is a waste of time. I get most of my inquiries when I am offline. Spend your time learning instead of mindlessly refreshing a page.

Edited July 20, 2021 by vibronx

[leannelrivers]

Just now, gajuseidi said:

Start small, utilize what you already have and invest in the quality of your service.

It's served me well in all of my professional and personal endeavours. Especially when looking to where I would like to be vs where I am has become overwhelming. Many small steps go a loooong way. 

[prava_smrite]

13 hours ago, vibronx said:

I am also a buyer on Fiverr. I have purchased more than 200 services. Only once, one single time, have I looked at who was online as I needed something fast. Most of the time, I could not care less. I message you because I want YOU to work for me, not someone else. I will wait for you to respond. Another buyer on here posted something similar recently, so I am pretty sure I am not the only one who operates in this way as a buyer.

Also, as an experienced seller, I will tell you that it can be a nightmare to work with a buyer who wants something done urgently or ASAP (I have really gotten to hate seeing those two words). They are often the most difficult to please.

So, all in all, my opinion is that being online is a waste of time. I get most of my inquiries when I am offline. Spend your time learning instead of mindlessly refreshing a page.

Thanks for your opinion.

[gajuseidi]

7 minutes ago, vibronx said:

First of all, I learned to get rid of unlimited revisions. I had them for a long time out of a genuine desire to deliver the absolute best I could, but I learned here on the forum how it could be abused, so although I never had any problems, I decided to get rid of them.

Moreover, I learned to always keep a cool head when responding to less than 5-star reviews. To take 24 hours to cool down if needed before responding. Professional responses to reviews are important as your future clients will most likely take a look at them.

Also, I learned to trust my gut regarding buyers. If I have the least bit of doubt about working with them, I will turn them down. This means I turn down more projects than I accept, but it keeps my experience positive, which is something I value.

All these advice are very helpful. I still keep unlimited revisions (mostly because my gigs are quite straight forward), but I'll have to see in the future, it's not the first time that I hear that unlimited revisions can be seriously abused. I also already had the unfortunate experience of getting a lower rating review even though I am a quite new seller on fiverr. While I didn't take 24h, I did take 2 hours to cool down and carefully crafted the reply before writing it below the review. And I also need to learn to evaluate buyers sooner rather than later, some of them can be a real hassle to deal with.

[leannelrivers]

2 minutes ago, vibronx said:

I will tell you that it can be a nightmare to work with a buyer who wants something done urgently or ASAP

I agree. Anyone who wants something NOW is a red flag. I've done last minute jobs for return clients or people who have had the first attempt totally messed up by someone else, but in my general experience buyers who have a 2 hour deadline are pretty unprofessional and extremely difficult to work with. 

 

9 minutes ago, prava_smrite said:

Its really helpful.

No one is saying that it's completely pointless to stay online but it's not as important as many sellers think.

[lenasemenkova]

Only because you can do it, it doesn't mean you should. 

I used to have such a hard time saying "no" to projects. Yes, I'll design you a map. Yes, I'll put together a brochure. Yes, I'll retouch *all* of your photos. I'll resent every second of the process but I'll do it. Part of it is greed, part of it is fear that no work will ever come again. With a pinch of professional pride thrown in, I think.