smashradio

They would never sign it. The thing is: this "industry" will let other people type in what they want and have my voice say it. I don't have any control and they don't have any control. Besides, it's bad for business, since I earn a living from my voice. It's like if I took all of your editing skills, used them to program an automated tool that can do a similar (but not as good) of a job editing and animating. Then resell that to anyone and put your name on it without you having any control over it. It's a beast. Our voice is our brand. If I came up with a contract that protected me against what they are doing, they wouldn't buy from me in the first place. So I find it easier to just say "Thanks, but no thanks" to these people.

Indeed it is. I spend 1-2 hours every day trying to learn something new that can help me become even better at what I do. It takes effort and willpower to get good at something, especially good enough to make money from it in the long term. I don't always have a fleshed out plan for everything I do. But if you think you have a business idea that might work, it does help to sit down and think it through. But being impulsive can be fun, so I get it. I prefer to keep that beast locked up when it comes to work, and release my inner spontaneousness for other, less important projects.

If I remember correctly, you already posted about this from another account. That post is here: In other words, you have violated the terms on Fiverr. If your account is disabled, that means you're not allowed to be on Fiverr. Creating a new account won't help your case. Just saying. You also made a duplicate of this post here: About what happened: nobody on the forum can help you with this. We're all just sellers and buyers here. With that said: the terms aren't just about payments but also trying to circumvent the messaging system on Fiverr to communicate elsewhere. It says so right in the terms that you accepted when you signed up for Fiverr. If you've broken the rules, nothing is at all unfair about this. It is your responsibility to know the rules and follow them. That's your problem, right there. You agreed to contact someone outside of the platform. That's a direct violation of the following: To protect our users' privacy, user identities are kept anonymous. Requesting or providing Email addresses, s***e/IM usernames, telephone numbers or any other personal contact details to communicate outside of Fiverr in order to circumvent or abuse the Fiverr messaging system or Fiverr platform is not permitted. The above is from the terms: https://www.fiverr.com/terms_of_service Since you have now made another account, you're also violating this: Multiple Accounts - To prevent fraud and abuse, users are limited to one active Fiverr account and one active Fiverr Business account. Any additional account determined to be created to circumvent guidelines, promote competitive advantages, or mislead the Fiverr community will be disabled. Mass account creation may result in disabling of all related accounts. Note: any violations of Fiverr’s Terms of Service and/or our Community Standards is a cause for permanent suspension of all accounts.

Probably from some other new seller who believed the same lie right here on the forum. It's always been one of those myths that new sellers believe. It's easier to believe than "You have to be great at what you do to succeed" and then putting your back into becoming so.

After being on Fiverr since 2014, I've seen many new sellers on the forum, complaining about not getting orders, not being able to rank their gig, and not getting impressions and clicks... The list goes on. So I wanted to talk to you a bit about why this happens. There are a few fundamental reasons why new sellers will struggle on Fiverr. #1 – New sellers offering the same service as everyone else If you sign in to Fiverr only to make a gig in a category with 100.000 other sellers, you'll most likely fail. Imagine opening up a shop in a shopping center with 100.000 other shops! You're not going to get many customers, especially if nobody knows who you are. Solution: Do your research. Offer something unique. Don't be seller number 114.000 offering "WordPress web design" or "Minimalist logo design." Think about what you do best. Specialize. Instead of an "I will design responsive website in WordPress"-gig, how about an "I will design a stellar plumber website"? This is just an example. You can't compete against 114.000 other sellers doing the exact same thing. But you have more than one gig slot. Use them, and be more specific. #2 – Not being good at what you do A lot of new sellers have no skills to back up their promises. This is unfortunate. If you just started learning something, you're not a pro. If you worked all your life flipping burgers, you're not a "marketing expert." You're a burger flipper. Solution: Be honest about your skills, most importantly to yourself. Only then can you begin to improve, learn and grow into a career as a freelancer. You need the skills before you make the gig. I understand that life can be challenging. That you desperately need money to put food on the table. And you have my sympathy. But you can't and won't succeed in business if you're not truly good at what you're selling. It all starts with honesty in front of the mirror. #3 – You don't have a plan Doing anything in business without a plan will most likely lead to failure. Solution: You need to know why you're doing this, how you're going to do it, and who you'll do it for. A man with a plan is a man who can. ---- There you have it. My top three reasons why new sellers fail. And how you can avoid making them. Now go out there, make a plan, be bold and be extraordinary. If you're not already there, go learn how to be. Then come back with new and marketable skills you can sell.

That's false and this myth have even been debunked by Fiverr itself. You don't have to be online all the time. I'm active on Fiverr 4-6 hours a day while working. The rest of my days are spent elsewhere. I'm a top rated seller. I've never, ever, tried being online "as much as I can". This is simply false.

You're in perhaps the most competitive category on Fiverr: WordPress. Do you have a business plan at all? A strategy for how you're going to build your niche, sell your services and promote your business? What is your value proposition (i.e. why should buyers pick you over the 113.000 other sellers in your category?) What makes you unique? When you know that, you can begin to create a plan for your marketing. You also need to know who your clients are, what they need, and how you will solve their problems. The best way to market your gig is right here on Fiverr. You do so by building trust and credibility, having a perfect gig in every way, and constantly improving. You need to stand out. I like that you have a gig video where you show yourself and talk about what you can do. That's something many sellers skip, and it can help you stand out. But you should re-do the video with better audio quality and lighting. Hire a friend or expert with a great camera and good audio gear to record your video. Get a nice location to film in (perhaps there are some co-working spaces with nice offices you can rent for a day?). Or, if you have the money, give your office a fresh coat of paint, get a new desk and make it look like you really mean business. When it comes to your script for your gig video, practice, practice and practice some more; hire a language teacher online to help you with the pronunciation of the specific script you're working with. Showing off that your English is excellent will help ease buyers' worries about communication issues because you're not a native speaker. Why all of this, you ask? Because it will help you stand out. If I check out your gig and see you as a true professional – a serious businessman who has invested in their business – I'm more likely to trust you with my project. You're on the right track with your gig description, but there's still room for improvement. Hire a US or UK native proofreader to help you fix mistakes and make it look native. One thing that stands out to me and makes you look less professional is this part of your gig description: "Message me if my packages exceed your budget." That immediately tells me that you're not professional and that you don't have any reason to back up your rates. It tells me that you're a person open to being used and willing to work for less. There's a reason why you have the rates that you do. Don't budge. Stand your ground and be proud of your rates. Never, ever apologize for them. Here are some tips I wrote on improving trust on Fiverr as a new seller. They might help!

Here's the thing. Most of these companies will not be open about it, and even when they are, the rates they offer are nothing short of scandalous. They will basically own your voice, forever, to make us of as they see fit, and they will re-sell this voice over, most likely without your permission. This isn't Google or Apple and their assistants we're talking about. (But hey, even Apple used their Siri voice without getting permission from the voice over actor). These are companies who take your voice, with or without your knowledge, and earn a buttload of money on it, without you having any control whatsoever, about what is being said using your voice. A UK friend of mine who at the time was fairly new to voice over, thought such a job was to be used for AI training, but didn't know that an international terror organization would use his voice to promote their wicked views in a video. A year later, and his voice is still out there on extremist forums, speaking words he never said. And it all started with a company offering a few hundred bucks for some "sentences" to "train AI". In my view, that's immoral, it's theft, and I don't really care if they are "open" about it - because most newbies in the industry won't have any clue about what's going on until it's too late. If a thief goes inside an office and says to the receptionist in a casual and natural, believable way, that he is just going to bring a computer for maintenance, and the receptionist – however naively – belives him, it would still be stealing when he walks out the door, even if he brings the computer home to fix it up before selling it on. That article perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with the "TTS business". It's a dirty business, and their only goal is to use us as voice actors to make the AI voices good enough to compete with... us. Even Apple is in on it. Yuck.

Indeed. These AI scammers will steal your voice and resell it as an AI voice, earning money using YOUR work, for next to nothing. I would also recommend staying away from any job that requires you to read long lists of words or sentences, unless you really trust the client and know what it's for. AI voices is a nasty business. Most of the companies offering them have stolen the work from real voice over actors. It's sad, really. I wish Fiverr would ban AI voices from the platform entirely, but it looks like they are going the other way, and even including them in the voice over category. I've seen four AI gigs in my language niche the past few months. Even FIverr is using AI voices now, to offer up "free AI auditions" from its VAs. Not a fan.

It doesn't really matter why at this point. Your account is under review and that can take up to 90 days. If you didn't break any rules, you'll most likely get your account back. In the future, you should be more aware of scammers and avoid people like this. Hope it all works out 🙂

This might help:

The automatic filtering works in mysterious ways. I would refrain from using the term "work outside of Fiverr" and instead use "I exclusively work right here on FIverr" or something like that, to avoid the filtering. Regarding scams: Fiverr is a massive platform with millions of users, focused on buying and selling services. Naturally, you're going to see a lot of scams, since it's a transactional website. It attracts scammers left and right because they know that sellers are alwasy eager to get more work, so it's easy to tempt them into doing something stupid. The good thing is that Fiverr catches these scoundrels fast. Whenever you see something you don't like, simply report it to Fiverr using the Report button in your inbox or on their profile. Fiverr can only catch the scammers they know about. And as always: if something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Here's some advice to identify and avoid getting scammed on Fiverr: Hope this helps! 🙂

I don't know how to change a username on your Fiber. You have to reach out to your Internet Service Provider and talk to them about it. What I do know, is that you can't change your username on FiVerr. Your username is permanent.

You should focus on marketing your gig on Fiverr. Your buyers are here. Making your gig the best it can be should be your main priority. With all that said, LinkedIn would probably be the most relevant third party platform to market your gig outside of Fiverr. That's not marketing. What you're doing is called spamming. It's not going to get you any business.

What have you done already to market your own business? Do you have a business plan in place? What is your value proposition, and how are you going to tell potential buyers about it? Have you researched your niches and made sure you're offering something unique? I see that you're in the web dev category. That's one of the most competitive verticals on Fiverr. So unless you're offering something unique that buyers are looking for, you might find it difficult to stand out. Since you're new on Fiverr, buyers have few reasons to trust you and pick you over someone else. It's difficult to get started. You can't just create a gig and expect people to come buying. You need to put your back into research and know your customers before you set up anything. Since you don't have any reviews yet, you have very little to show for in terms of social proof. But you can still build credibility on Fiverr in other ways. My guide on how to build credibility and trust on Fiverr as a new seller might help: One thing that stands out to me, is the lack of work examples. You should showcase more of your work in your portfolio. Don't just tell me that you're a good web designer: show me. Your gig descriptions could need some love. Add more information to help the buyer understand why they should pick you. Let's say I'm a carpenter, looking for someone to make my new website. I don't know what the advantages of "clean code" is. Do you vacuum clean my computer after you made the website? (Ok, bad example, but you get what I mean). If you research what type of pain points most web design clients have, you can begin to narrow it down. Start off by showing that you understand my problem. You know my fears. And here is the solution! Your gig is very general. It's not unlike the 20.000 other web design gigs out there. You could try to set up more specific gigs to be more visible. If I'm a carpenter, I might search for "carpenter website". Guess what: only 25 gigs show up! If I search for just "web design", 26.623 gigs show up! If you have a great looking gig dedicated to making the best carpenter websites, you might show up on top for those buyers. Obviously, a carpenter website is just an example. You have to research the niches you want to work with. Then you have to perfect your craft and hone your skills for those niches. Don't be so general. Most general gigs never succeed. But if you start making your own niches, and you do it well, you stand a much better chance of getting some orders. Best of luck!

I didn't say it doesn't matter. I said I was not too worried about it. If businesses start spending less on services because they have to save money, that will also affect me. I'm not too concerned because I started preparing for a financial crisis in 2020, and I've had two years to increase the size of my financial cushion. I get the chills whenever I see governments printing money like crazy (like they did during the pandemic/lockdowns to keep the markets up artificially). So it seemed like the smart thing to do: less investing in stocks, more investing in a rainy-day fund to keep me afloat if/when the shit hits the fan. And it appears to be some shit hitting the fan right about now. For now, though, it's business as usual, and I'm getting more business than ever here on Fiverr. But I'd hate being content with the situation only to get surprised when things start going the other way. But unless all your buyers have invested all their money in Fiverr stocks, the stock price won't affect you directly. It's the general market trend that is worrisome.

Directly, no. But if we take the general situation in the stock market as an indication, it's likely that businesses will start to scale down some operations. That could potentially mean less business for us as sellers, but I'm not too worried about that. I most certainly believe in the company, so I'm holding on to my shares. But I wouldn't invest my reserves at this point - not in Fiverr or any other stock - but it has little to do with Fiverr. The bubble we saw during the pandemic isn't likely to happen again anytime soon, but I'm sure the prices will rice rise *again when the markets swing the other way. But like both you and I mentioned, that could take years. I would much rather focus on building up a bigger cushion and making sure my portfolio is diversified with more physical assets at this point in time. But you're right: if you're in it for the long run and you have the money to spare, the entry point isn't bad at all, considering we were at 300 a few months ago. * Good lord, I need to learn typing all over again on this laptop. Also, note to self: stop thinking about food when typing.

You still have to follow the rules on the platform when offering free consulations. That means you can't share contact info or be in contact outside of Fiverr. The "consulation" would have to be done in the chat on Fiverr for that reason. One of the services I offer is SEO content. Sometimes, the buyer will want to know things like how many words they should order, based on their existing content and website, competition and so on. So I can help them by taking a look at their website, content and competitors, to give them an idea of what I think will be effective to achieve their goals. I'll look closer at what they already have, their competitors, keywords and goals. Then I'll provide my recommendations and explain what I can do for them to achieve those goals. All of that is done in chat. It's free, yes, but the end goal is to help the buyer decide on what they should order from me. So it's basically a part of my "sell", and not totally free, since my consultation is basically a sales pitch designed to help the buyer know what would work for them. My interest is always client satisfaction, so my recommendations are always real and I never try to oversell my services.

We're on our way into a recession. Investing in stock that has just taken a beating might not be a good idea. I'm a shareholder myself, and I haven't sold my stocks, since there would be no point right now. But if you take a look at the history of Fiverr stock prices, it's been going down and down since february 2021. Just since last month, we're down more than 17%. We're basically exiting the pandemic bubble. Most analysts at this point advise shareholders to hold. Even so, Fiverr can and will grow in my opinion. If you have enough money to speculate on stocks, after you've paid your bills and set aside enough for living comfortably with rising food prices, gas prices and possible food shortages, and you've already diversified your portfolio with safer bets like gold to have some security, Fiverr might not be your worst bet. But I wouldn't go crazy. And investing at all during these troubling times, should only be done after you've set aside a nice emergency fund and if you're ready to let the money sit for 5 - 10 years or longer. If you have a mortgage, I'd focus on that. I have a feeling we'll see lots of people defaulting in the coming years. I smell corrections left and right. 😂

Thanks! I'll do my best. Naturally, I didn't take my own advice and forgot a custom offer in chat, so I have to write a bit tomorrow, but that can be done from the pool. It's never easy. I used to feel guilty for taking days off. Telling my regulars I was going away made me grind my teeth. So it's something I had to learn over time. Disney sounds nice! Though wou would never catch me spending money there. I much prefer Portaventura in Spain. The roller coasters are my thing, not the theming. Also, I hate what they've done to Star Wars. 😂

I second this. I once had a "buyer" who talked ideas for a few days. Turned out to be a similar situation, where they used my ideas but not my services. Normally, they will come to me with some idea of what they'd like. If they have no clue and want me to do research, I tell them that I'll happily set up a custom offer for consulation services. The only consulation I do for free is SEO related, and it basically goes like this: What we should do in a summary form with little details What I can do The price I try to be unspecific, like for instance saying "Deploy technical SEO tools to optimize the website" instead of "Install Yoast SEO to optimize the website". Even so, free consulations will sometimes end up being just that. Can't catch'em all. But it sucks when they take your ideas and research elsewhere. Most likely to some cheaper seller who don't have the know-how to do the research themselves.

I'm taking a few well-earned days off. It got me thinking: many sellers/freelancers struggle with this. Taking time off is scary, especially on Fiverr. If you activate the dreaded "out of office"/"I'm unavailable" mode on your profile, your gigs disappear from the search results. It can take days or even weeks before you get back to your regular revenue stream when you get back. Fiverr rewards sellers who sell. So by not selling, you set yourself up for less business, not to mention that the projects you would have picked up if you were available will go to other sellers. Even so, we have to take time off to stay sane. Here are a few tips to make your days off easier: #1 - Plan ahead Start planning now if you know you're taking a week off next month. Make sure you don't get overbooked. Increase your delivery times when appropriate. Make sure you include days off in case you need it on large projects. #2 - Inform your regular buyers if you have active orders/upcoming projects If you're currently working with some regular buyers on orders, inform them about your days off. They might expect you to be available next week for new projects or follow-ups. By telling them, they can plan accordingly, and you avoid getting questions from your regulars about a new project during your time off. Don't message sellers you don't have active or on-going work with. They don't need to know and you risk annoying them. #3 - Decide if you want to be available to take orders or not If you're just gone for a couple of days, increasing your delivery time might be a good idea instead of activating "out of office" mode. That way, you're still active and working on Fiverr. When you activate "out of office", you're gone from Fiverr. If you're willing to respond to all messages quickly while away, you can maintain some normality for yourself and your buyers during and after your time off. Make sure to follow #1 if you do this. If you're gone for more than a few days, increased delivery times may be unreasonable to your buyers and give the impression that you're slow. I tend to use out-of-office for anything more than a single day. If I just want Wednesday off to be with the family, I'll increase my deadlines on custom orders and gigs by an extra day instead. # 4 - Budget your days off Calculate your average hourly salary and how many work hours you'll miss by being off for your set amount of time per year. The amount you're left with should be added to your rates. If you miss 10% of your salary yearly because of days off, bake that into your gig prices. Don't forget that we tend to spend more while on vacation. Add that, too! #5 - Ramp it up! For large projects with longer deadlines, you could ramp up production a few weeks ahead of your days off. It can be a good option if you wish to clear your dashboard before going away but requires you to work more in the weeks leading up to your vacation. #6 - Time it right Try to take your days off when it's quiet on Fiverr. That means weekends, bank holidays and so on. Make sure you check when important buyer countries have their days off. It might differ in your country. For example, there is no bank holiday in western countries during the Islamic holiday Eid Al-Fitr, and while most western countries have days off during Christmas, this might not be the case in your country if you don't celebrate Christmas. And now it's time for me to sign off. This awaits me for the next three days:

Each milestone should have it's own timer, so I wouldn't worry. I haven't used milestones that much, but in my experience, the timer of a milestone is based on the time you've set and should start at the beginning when/if they accept the milestone. If in doubt, you could always drop an e-mail to support@fiverr.com

It just means that this is an active order that should be prioritized. It is sorted in the order Fiverr thinks you should prioritize. Let's say you have two orders: one with 1 hour left before the deadline, the other with 24 hours: Fiverr will then show that 1-hour order at the top. If you have late orders, they will show up at the top of the list. It makes sense when you have multiple orders and can help you get a quick overview of which orders you should work on first.

I once got a delivery from a seller that turned out to be stolen property. The video intro I ordered 4 years ago was basically stolen and my wife, who used the video on some videos on Youtube, got a copyright strike for it. You can be damn sure I contacted customer support, got the order cancelled, and reported the user. I also sent the username to the original copyright owners along with documentation of my order, and they removed the strike from Youtube. I seriously hope they went after the seller with all their might. Selling stolen property should not go unpunished. I'm not saying you did something like this! It just goes to show that yes, if a buyer found out that they had a rightful reason to cancel the order, it could happen years later. As to the reason for your cancellation, you need to take that up with customer support. They might be able to tell you why.