smashradio

The team hand-cranking the servers and keeping the community boiler lit are tired after being on duty for 13 years without a break. They have finally been granted 5 hours to get a massage and a Iced, half-caff, Ristretto, Venti, 4 pumps, sugar-free, cinnamon, Dolce soy skinny latte. Or, it's just planned maintenance like @donnovan86 said, but I like my version better.

It isn't happening to everyone. My own slump last month can be easily explained by being less active on the platform overall, and I'm still at the top of search results and have more orders than I can handle, to the point of having to set myself as unavailable to control the number of projects I get. Inflation, this being spring-time (i.e. marketing budgets are already spent before the holiday season and lots of companies holding off until the next one), tech startup crisis due to bank failures, rising costs, it all plays a part into our revenue, as does our performance. This happening to a lot of reputable people I know aren't underperforming, tells me that the current financial crisis must be affecting a lot of sellers, even the best ones. Sure, there might be changes to the algo, but I don't think Fiverr would intentially put reputable high-status sellers in a slump on purpose. @newsmike I've done a bit of searching and you consistently land on page 2 - 3 for me when searching for "american voice over" or "american male voice over". If I filter for "pro" you're among the first three results. I'm not sure how that compares to before for you, but at least your gig isn't buried on page 10. It could indicate that buyers are looking for cheaper deals at the moment, as I've experienced a similar trend with my copywriting gig (also Pro). Especially I've noticed fewer orders from regular clients, and that's not down to the algo, unless they're using it to search for cheaper sellers.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. Buyer wants you to do a project. You say yes and provide a price. Buyer pays you for the work. You do the work and deliver as agreed. Buyer don't want to pay you because they changed their mind. If you delivered what was described in the initial offer, theoretically, Fiverr will not give him a refund. But it has happened, so your money is not safe at this point. I would try to work with the client to make them understand that they can't hire you for work, then accept the delivery, and then ask for a refund, unless they have grounds to do so (i.e. it was discovered later on that your work wasn't up to scratch). If the buyer actually got through with such a demand and I felt they had no grounds for it, I would send it off to my lawyer. You can always take them to court, if you think you'll win and the amount is worth it. But I would wait and see what happens with customer support first. No need to panic over it before anything has happened. At this point, the buyer is trying to force you to give them a refund for work you have already completed. Unless they have good reason to do so (changing their mind is not a good reason!) you're most likely safe. You could try explaining to the client that you can't go into a supermarket, by a bottle of Coke, drink it, and then go back inside the store asking for a refund because you wanted Sprite instead.

If only they had the same systems in place to not charge sellers for spam clicks. They can, but they haven't done so. I'm basically paying for spammers to click my ad on Fiverr and send me "contact on t€legr@m huge data entry work sir".

Yes, while I do think the two platforms can be compared these days, given that Up is also doing the "gig thing" now, I see time as money, and right now, Up takes more time per dollar. But even so, I think a lot of sellers, most likely the ones working on big projects, will be tempted by "10%" instead of "20%". You don't have to. You can just create gigs there, too. For me, it's a matter of comfort. I simply like Fiverr better, and the buyers here are great, for the most part, so I'm not leaving anytime soon. But if Up is stepping up their game, Fiverr needs to do the same to keep their most talented pool of sellers on platform.

You most likely got an e-mail explaining why your gig wasn't approved. Have you checked your inbox?

Fiverr will prompt you if/when they want you to verify your ID. You can read more about it here: https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/360010968038-Verifying-your-identity?segment=buyer

You do sort of "bid" on Fiverr as well. It's automated, but you're competing with your gig/profile in search results all the time, and most of the time, you're not going to get picked. The platform now also has "gigs" If I remember correctly, they even offered a "direct import of your Fiverr gig" before they launched it – description and all – so they're taking the best from Fiverr and leaving the rest behind. Dirty tactics? Maybe, but it's competition time. With that said, I don't like working on there, because I don't want to spend time bidding, and most of the Norwegian projects relevant to me are from lowballing TTS companies in China. But, for a lot of freelancers, I can see it making more sense to pay for connects and if they have the bidding process nailed down, they can save on connects too. You also get free connects for completing contracts if I remember correctly.

Indeed. I think we got a lot of importaint points across, but it is true what was said: these things have been on our agenda for years. It just hasn't been on theirs. I hope things change and I like that they're working with us. But you're right: I'm not holding my breath, either. I've had a slump in terms of new clients in february. But I blame that on me being less active on the platform due to other projects. Perhaps you just got a very negative private review? I'm sure you've already considered this and ruled it out as unlikely, but I just wanted to mention it. I had a slump last year, and I had a gut feeling about this one buyer and it turned out to be true. I fired that buyer and things slowly started improving again. But if it is like @frank_d said in his Fiverr 4.0 post, people just have to wait it out. That's not a way to treat your best and most talented sellers, in my opinion, which is why I've called for more transparancy, as @visualstudios so eloquently pointed out before me (I had a speech prepared but so did you and yours was better - haha). The Up argument is a good one, simply because it's not that difficult to move or prioritize. I haven't bothered with it because I prefer the way Fiverr works, but 10% is a better deal for sure. If they want to keep their best people, they have to adjust certain things to remain competitive. I think Fiverr has forgotten that they're not just competing for the buyers, but sellers as well. Maybe they've realized that something is about to happen now, given that people from the retention-team was present during our discussion. Inflation, reduced spend and the banking crisis is surely affecting us all, some more than others. If you have a lot of clients in the tech sector, you're going to feel the pain in the coming months if you haven't already. I also think more companies are focusing on getting through this, hopefully turning a profit, while growth is taking a back seat for now. I'm no expert, but that's what I've gathered from all the tech giant layoffs.

If the risk of working with first time buyers is getting bad reviews that count more because of them being noobs, experienced sellers will surely shy away from new buyers in many cases. Onboarding for new buyers was actually a subject in a roundtable discussion with Fiverr I joined in on today. Let's hope they do it, because it can perhaps avoid some of the growing pains new buyers clearly have.

I think this is part of Fiverr moving up-market. Usernames are not very compatible with that strategy, as recruiters are looking for real people. This change was first launched on the Fiverr Business version of the platform ages ago, where I have been going by the name Leo L. since the separate gig listings and profiles were launched. It's likely that it will pop up elsewhere as well, after Fiverr have had some time to analyze it.

That means the buyer probably has blocked you, or that the buyer sent tons of similar messages to a lot of sellers at once, and the spam filter kicked in on them. If the buyer blocked you after a two-minute conversation, your issue is most likely your communication or your offer.

In addition to the technical requirements you have to fulfill, that you can read more about in the link posted by @maxtpf – there are a number of things to keep in mind. In fact, we've had a discussion on this before, where a lot of top rated sellers chimed in (including me) with opinions on the subject. I suggest you read that thread. You'll find lots of insight from TRS sellers in it.

Gig eligibility for promotions is determined by multiple factors, including gig quality and feedback. Keep in mind that Fiverr operates with different types of feedback: public star ratings and a two-part private review that you'll never see or hear about. A buyer can leave negative feedback that only Fiverr can see, and this can, among other things, affect if your gig is eligible for promotion.

Simple: be an actual expert at what you do and learn how Fiverr works (hint: being an actual professional and not a pretender is what lands you success). That, plus a lot of hard work, patience and by treating your profile as the business it is, not thinking it's just a quick way to earn some cash.

I'm positive! I think it makes our profile more personal and it certainly gives off a better impression when you're a freelancer to use ones name instead of some random username you made back in 2014 - like I did when I just wanted a guy to sing for five dollars. I started selling and I still find messages starting with "Hello Smash" or "How are you, Mr. Radio?".

This is for all you singers, voice-overs and audio people out there. First, a short explanation: I'm a voice-over actor, but I'm also an audobook producer. Sometimes, independent writers reach out to me, wanting to record their own audiobook. "Good lord," is my first thought. "The audio quality of an amateur recording in their living room. Again?!" Editing and producing any piece of audio recorded in less-than-ideal conditions (i.e. a professional studio) can be a nightmare. Back to the project: I got the files, and as I suspected, the audio was horrible. No way you could publish anything like that and sell it. Anyway, I decided it was time for a challenge – not for me – but for AI. As we all know, the web is now littered with AI tools for anything from text and image generation to music production and graphics design. I'm probably not the only one who got the chills from watching Microsoft's last trailer for Copilot. And while AI will leave a lot of us without jobs in the future, it can also be an amazing tool too. In the case of this audiobook I was working on, I wanted to try Adobe Podcast and their new enhanchment tool for audio. It promises to make bad audio sound like it's recorded in a professional studio. Really!? I've spent thousands of bucks perfecting my studio with high-end gear and acoustic treatment. Is Adobe telling me I can now achieve the same on a smart phone? Well yes, that is what they're claiming. I don't agree, of course. It's not THAT good. But it is freakin' impressing, and then some. Just listen to the comparison attached below. The audio has only been through Adobe's enhancher and then through a simple EQ to remove rumble. That's it. I'm officially impressed. Does this mean anyone with a smartphone and a Creative Cloud subscription can now be a professional voice-over talent? Of course not. It's not the thousands I've spent on gear that makes me a professional voice actor. It's my experience. But if I'm ever on the road and my portable recording studio just won't cut it, this tool is a godsend. Comparison_mixdown.mp3

Why lie?

It's not the last one to go, that's for sure. Bank mismanagement gave us the 08 crisis. Government mismanagement gave us the inflation crisis. And now, bank mismanagement AND government mismanagement is working together to kick people in the butt. Go for gold. The physical stuff. Perhaps we can ask Fiverr to start paying us in gold nuggets. 💰

Cash advance is just another word for loan. In other words, Fiverr is offering this to people who they think needs it and can pay it back based on criteria I imagine is similar to what banks use. I've been a Top Rated Seller for years. I don't share my internal business figures on a public forum with random strangers, but safe to say, my financial situation indicates I could take out a loan with low risk to the lender. Yet, I've never had (nor would I want) the option to get an advance from Fiverr. If you have to take out what I'd call a micro loan to stay afloat, you're doing something wrong, financially speaking. As a freelancer, you should have at least one year worth of expenses set aside at any given moment, before you go into freelancing. Freelancing is just like any other business: you need to be able to operate at a loss. If you can't take that, you're not ready to be a freelancer. So, while I have a six-figure credit line on my credit card, I never use more than I can pay back in a month to avoid interest, and I use my credit card because of the miles I get. I never paid as much as a dime in interest. In my opinion, cash advance is a predatory practice by Fiverr to "hook" freelancers who shouldn't be freelancing into staying on the platform, trying to pay back their debt. As soon as it's paid, many will get to repeat the same cycle over and over again with no end in sight. Let's realize it; most who get the offer, don't take out the loan to invest it back into their business, but to pay their bills and put food on the table, instead of slowly and surely building a buffer. It's just sad. And you should probably take it as a sign that Fiverr don't think you're in enough financial trouble to take out the loan. That's most likely a good thing (not that I pretend to know your situation, though). But if you're in a tight corner, go to your bank and speak to them about it. Having a good line of credit with a serious financial institution and building a positive credit history, will do you much more good than taking up a loan from Fiverr.

If you tend to accidentally bump into the button, this is a great idea.

While I see why this can be useful, and I don't disagree with the idea, the solution to this is simple. Read your message before sending it. Twice. Or even better, write your message elsewhere and copy it into your inbox. Being purposeful when typing and proofreading before sending will fix this issue.

This depends on what and how you edit. If your edits are bad, it can affect your visibility on Fiverr. Let's say you have a good gig thumbnail, and you replace it with a bad one. That can cause your clicks, conversion rate and orders to drop, causing you to rank lower in search. That's just an example. But people need to understand that it's not the act of editing causing issues, but all edits should be purposeful and improve your gig, not make it worse. With that said, you're asking: It can absolutely affect your ranking. If you replace keywords that aren't really relevant or searched for with more relevant ones, it can improve. Conversely, if you replace relevant keywords with irrelevant ones, you'll be impacted negatively. Gig titles also need to convert, meaning they should entice the buyer to click on your gig and order, so a good gig title can increase the number of orders you get, your conversion rate and revenue, all factors playing a part into how visible you are on the platform. As far as I know, having orders in your queue won't have an effect either way. Regarding gig "rank": There's no such thing as a fixed "gig rank". Your visibility on Fiverr depends on many factors, such as how relevant the algorithm thinks your gig is, your performance, buyer satisfaction rate, selling price etc. It changes based on your gigs, the buyer searching and your performance on Fiverr. Hope this helps!

First of all, you should never ask a buyer to leave a five-star or positive review. Leaving a review is completely voluntary, and trying to affect what a buyer leaves in a review is against the terms on Fiverr. You should not continue to harass your buyer about this. If you believe that the buyer left a review and it doesn't show up on your gig, you can reach out to customer support and ask them to have a look.

As a professional writer myself, I've actually used ChatGPT to generate ideas (not content) when I'm stuck or just too tired to come up with good ideas on my own. That being said, I've seen some of the results ChatGPT can produce, and while impressing as hell, ChatGPT has lots of issues, one of the being factuality. The AI uses its "imagination" a bit too much when generating content. It also tends to be repetitive, and while I'm sure it will get better and even work well for SEO, I think writers need to think about this differently: You see... ChatGPT can write content that ranks in the search engines. But the very nature of AI will change how we look for content, how we search for information, and how we use it. Look at what Microsoft is doing with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Nobody there are talking about SEO content generation as the "future". Nope. They're talking about how AI like ChatGPT and similar tools can (and already is) implemented into things like search. So when you go to look for something online next year, you won't look at a long list of websites based on endless longform content stuffed with keywords (and who can make the longest, most optimized content for Google). You'll be asking the Bing AI to come up with it's own content and information about a subject, narrow it down as required using a chat, and end up with exactly what you where looking for. Nobody will talk about "SEO" anymore. So as a writer, should you be worried? Only if you've specialized in writing for a bloody algorithm. If you're a real writer, you're putting out content made for the reader. You're writing to engage people, not algorithms. And for the moment, people want to read what other people have to say. Not stuff put together by an AI. I don't think that will change in the medium term. But sure. If you're purely writing for the SERP algorithm, you should be afraid. Your job is gone shortly. But not for the reason you might think. Not because ChatGPT will write more and better content than you for less, but because the very nature of AI will make "Search Engine Optimization" irrelevant. P.S. You know what? That might be a good thing. Perhaps we no longer have to read articles with stupid keyword stuffing, unnaturally long introductions, or read 3000 words of pointless crap written by amateurs, just because that is what ranks as number one on Google for a specific search phrase. Perhaps the articles we actually do end up reading will have some semblance of quality. Perhaps real authors, journalists and people will a real passion for the subject can finally write about it in an engaging way, instead of repeating the same old crap ten times over in a slightly different way to hit the required word count "to rank". 🙂