[Can someone give me some hope?]

@vickispencer - You’re correct in what I was saying. But for clarity, I was saying that when I was only a buyer, I would appreciated seller reaching out to me and yes, it was mostly from sellers that I knew well. Now that I am a seller (and buyer), I will do the same.

@misscrystal - Duly noted. but I think sellers should do what works for them within reason and the rules… That being said, I respectfully agree to disagree.

[Can someone give me some hope?]

That’s actually a really interesting response and strategy, one I actually have thought about doing yesterday. Now that you mention this, I think I will definitely try this out and see if I can get some new customers to notice my work. Thank you!

You’re welcome. Work works 😉

[Can someone give me some hope?]

reach back out to old customers and offer them something special

Never do this as it can result in an account warning or even an account ban. It is spamming.

Customers reach back out to me “conversationally” all the time. I never report them as spam. I see it as great customer service. Over the five years I’ve been on fiverr as a BUYER exclusively, I can say that I appreciate when sellers “check on me” to see if I need anything.

[Can someone give me some hope?]

I’ve used vacation mode 4 times

The first one was awful, it took me more than a month start getting sales again

The other three no problems, I turned off vacation mode just before getting on the plane road home, when landed I already had some orders, so, awesome

I haven’t used vacation mode since I raised my prices above $5, rarely buyers place an order without prior contact for evaluating the project, when the prices were at $5, it happened every day

Never give up, we need to adapt and evolve to the system changes to survive and keep getting sales, repeated buyers are great to keep the gig alive

We’re not going to get anything by complaining, the system is how it is and the updates are good for some people and bad for others

i agree with sergio_yanes. If I am not looking for something new that I haven’t purchased before, I usually go back to sellers I’ve previously done business with. The old adage, “People do business with whom they know, like and trust.” That being said, reach back out to old customers and offer them something special or a “new gig.” I actually think someone said this above. Or, use a new way of promoting your gig among business professionals. E.g. find people on social media that may look like they need their photo retouched AND ASK THEM IF THEY’RE INTERESTED IN YOUR GIG before sending it to them. Or try the one that always gets me to but (this really works and I usually end up leaving a nice tip, but ALL buyers are not like this), find pictures that you can make better, do the work (make a 25 - 50%) improvement and let a prospective buyer know, if they buy your gig, you’ll 100% improve their image. Some may frown on this, but the Universe reward the bold (and buyers rewards sellers) that offer VALUE beyond what they’ve purchased.