visualstudios

Who's we? My prices are high, and I also work with agencies. Because he's one of the top 1% I referred to. Yes, some very successful sellers are American and make a lot of money. But not nearly enough to be in the top 3 of any category, that's my point.

It's present in every category, sure, but it shouldn't be top 3, for the reasons I outlined above. They have a big population, but most of that population is employed in things that can make them more than working on Fiverr. Not so for cheap countries, that's why there are so many sellers there.

Interesting numbers. I would never guess the US numbers would be so high (for sellers), they appear quite consistently on the top 3. That doesn't make a lot of sense - working on Fiverr living in the US is much less appealing, given the cost of living. Yes, it works if you're a very high earner on Fiverr (like, top 1%), but there aren't enough of those to be on the top 3 of any category. In a country where you can make 30k+ a year flipping burgers, why would you work freelance for way less? And yes, the vast, vast majority of people in the platform are making less than that. And yes, Americans may do it as a side hustle, I suppose, but they would drop out fast or just have functionally inactive accounts (do it for a while and then give up). They shouldn't be that active. Something doesn't add up. I would fully expect all categories (except the ones that have to be on location, like shooting video in a certain place, etc.) to have a top 3 consisting only of low cost of living countries. Even for stuff like V/O, you just need to be a native speaker, you don't need to live in the country - you can live in a much cheaper place and make bank.

I can't take top rated budge out of my head.

You'll never get to be top rated while you write like that, I'm afraid. That's comically bad.

How the hell was that post written by a chatbot? top rate budge? seriously?

This is wrong. They don't take a 20% commission from buyers.

Ahahah, no it's not. I guarantee I spend more time (therefore more work, by any metric) on each client than Fiverr does.

And yet you can't spell grammarly correctly, even with it staring you in the face.

Hey Ran, Just read your response, and I'm not happy with it. I'd like a free revision on it, please. Thanks!

This doesn't work, for two reasons: 1)They can leave a bad private review that you can't respond to, or even see 2)They can create a new account if their stats get bad. A buyer account is worthless, you can just keep creating new ones, you lose nothing.

Mike, I have been saying that FOR YEARS. You can't compare amazon reviews to Fiverr reviews, because the system is exceedingly skewed and punitive here. A 4.4 average should be good. But it is not. You can't be a TRS with a 4.4 average. You have to be better than the iPhone 13 to get anywhere here. Of course this isn't true - it's not that you're better than the iPhone, is that the reviews are artificially inflated. By design. The cutoff for demotion being at 4.7 tells you everything you need to know. Fiverr expects (nay, demands) 5 star reviews. Or else. That's all there is to it. As for the principled approach of "don't cancel, don't work for free"... It's not that simple. Making $100 now by possibly foregoing $1000 going forward (due to demotion, drop in stats removing you from search, etc.) is not worth it. It's not about principles, it's about business strategy. My business principle is very simple - keep the business growing. If I believe I can make it grow more by canceling than by getting a bad review, that's what I'll do. It's the smart thing to do.

Yes. "Rules for thee, but not for me" gets stale fast. Why should sellers be subject to much higher scrutiny than Fiverr employees? We are independent workers. SM's are not, they actually do represent Fiverr.

Yes, of course, but it's still curious that I got people to spend more precisely when the trend seems to be people spending less. Maybe a bit too curious. Of course I don't have the numbers, so it's impossible to tell.

That's what's weird though. If spend was going down, it wouldn't make sense that I sold my two biggest orders ever this year. Sure, it can all be "luck", but we're talking about two single orders each valued more than a lot of entire months last year. So there's definitely people out there with money to spend. They exist. The problem is that Fiverr doesn't seem to send them to me frequently enough - when I've proven I can close those deals, and make Fiverr a ton in commission. Sure, money to spend can be going down - but that's a double edged sword. Maybe before these guys would go to a LA studio and pay 50k por a commercial. Suddenly, paying 10k to a freelancer is not spending a lot - it's actually cutting down spending tremendously. In the meanwhile, my SM has suggested again and again that I should go for lower priced, quicker orders, which given the current climate would be an obvious mistake. The "ready made quick thing for cheap" era is over - AI killed it. The value now is in the creative direction, in the personal touch, in the bespoke. And that can't come "cheap". They just don't get it.

Nobody does, but I think it's dangerous to be more afraid of that than of not calling out what's wrong. I feel that's happening more and more, recently.

Well, there are "cultures" out there that marry out girls at the age of 12, and worse. Up to you to know if that's harsh or not.

Well, in other news I just sold my largest gig ever. Second time this year, it's actually what's propping up my numbers, so I'm on track for my goals. So yeah, if things keep going like this, numbers will go up, while number of orders will go down. I'm fine with that, but I just feel that's tempting luck too much. One big order doesn't come through for a while, and numbers are total crap.

Ah, so I take it from looking at your profile that you are always offline, then?

Sure, but that's if you accept the order. If someone tells me "I want this made for $5", that's not imposing anything. I mean, it's imposing a no from me, I guess lol.

Then it's not imposing... it's very easy to say no, when no order is open. He did you a favor, actually, by showing his cards prior to order start. Good riddance.

Sure. The problem is, it's not the buyer "imposing" them. It's the platform. If Fiverr greyed out the revision button after the number of specified revisions had been exhausted, and switched it for a button to pay for extra revisions, as it should, then it would be correct.

That's the problem. Fiverr consistently shifts the blame and responsibility towards sellers - so sellers look bad, never Fiverr. It's the same bs with revisions. Instead of Fiverr taking the responsibility to enforce revision limits, it's the seller that has to refuse revisions above the agreed amount, and ask for more money. So the seller is always the bad guy.

There ain't. These people are on the internet. They have access to the same information we all have. If they wanted to be educated, they would be by now. They don't care. They won't read. Cultural differences? Sure. But I don't buy total cultural relativism. Some cultures are better than others. Namely, the more adaptable ones. In Rome, be roman. If your culture prevents you from following what works in a certain market / context, your culture sucks. If, on the other hand, your culture promotes flexibility and adaptation, that's a productive culture. It will work well for you.

Oh, they are definitely impolite. I get a ton of spammers and scammers, and it's always from a select group of countries. It goes way beyond English skills or lack thereof. Case in point, just now: